Primula 'Elizabeth Killelay': flowers

Primula, known in English as "primroses" and in French as primevère, is a genus of herbaceous perennials native to the northern Hemisphere, as well as mountains in Ethiopia and southeast Asia, and temperate South America.

This cultivar, 'Elizabeth Killelay', has very dark red-black petals edged in white. (The flowers are actually double but I guess this specimen hasn't reached that stage of development yet.} It was on display at Toronto Botanical Garden at Canada Blooms.

Canada Blooms 2008

I went to Canada Blooms for the first time this year. I was hoping to see unusual new varieties, but almost all the exhibitors stuck with a handful of species, I guess because they were best able to survive being in the convention centre--tulips, daffodills, crocuses, gerbera daisies, Himalayan birch (why not a native birch?), etc.

I was intrigued to see this exhibitor (some national wildlife charity, I should have written it down) got their dried flowers from Almonte! (Almonte is my hometown, in eastern Ontario.)

Floral arrangement, 'Generation Gap', by Nancy Wahorn, won 2nd prize in this category, and also the Helen Chochran Novice Award--Design. Plants include Pleomele reflexa variegate, Amaranthus viridis, Strelitzia.

Photos of individual plants at Canada Blooms have their own entries.