In early spring  particularly around Easter there are some lovely Primroses for sale on line and in the garden centres. Primulas, (Primrose) are part of a very large group of 400 species and of all types and colours.  It's tempting to see them as spring bedding and dispose of them when early summer comes along, but some are perennial. In the group Primrose-Polyanthus Primulas, which are winter/ spring flowering, some are evergreen, some biennials and others are perennials which will flower every year.  Rather than put them on the compost heap come the end of May, take a chance and plant them out and you may well find they die back a bit and do nothing much, but then come next spring they will come into flower, and if dead headed will keep on flowering. When emptying the spring tubs it's worth salvaging the best and planting them up. The images below show: on the left the primroses as bedding bought from the garden centre  just this year, which have survived the awful snow and frost and don't look too bad. The next two images are Primroses from last year, planted into the garden into a slightly shady border near a pond, and given the awful winter they too are looking reasonable. If Primroses are planted in the garden all year they will tend to flower later than those bought in garden centres, especially in a really bad year such as this, but they have come back. The Primroses illustrated on the left in the container will be planted at the end of May,  in the garden same spot as the others, as I feel Primroses look at their best grouped together. It's always worth a try rather than throwing them away and a nice surprise next spring when you spot them  flowering again, for free.

There really are many types of Primulas including candelabra species which are taller and many Primulas are strong coloured, long flowering and are great planted out in the borders and definately not just for Easter.