Auricula seeds

Auriculas are the alpine cousins of our wild primroses. Also known as the bear's ears primrose, they have smooth rounded fleshy leaves often covered with powder, to protect them from the intense solar radiation of the high mountains. Their jewel-like colours were much loved by the 18th and 19th century florists, although they are considered old-fashioned plants, they are still cherished today by young and old alike. 

To find out a bit more about the fascinating history of the Auricula take a look at our Auricula History pages.

They are broadly split into two categories :

Garden Auriculas include alpine, border, doubles and striped. These are intended for the garden and are fully hardy and relatively easy to grow. Can be grown in  pots or in the ground, but make sure they have good drainage in winter and protection from slugs.

Show auriculas are split into 5 distinct types : self, fancy, green edged, grey edged and white edged. All have a distinct circle of white paste or farina at the centre of the flower. The show auriculas are often grown in pots and need a little more attention if you are to succeed in producing top quality flowers.

Flowering period: Mid-spring- early summer.

Culture: Growing auriculas from seed can be quite a challenge as they are slow to develop and will need keeping damp and cool for quite a long time and then drier over the first winter. Some plants will flower the first year but some might take longer.

For tips on growing Auriculas, see the sections on Garden auriculas or Show auriculas. 

For more information about sowing auriculas, please consult our information page Sowing Primula seeds. 

Subcategories

  • Barnhaven seed strains
    Barnhaven seed strains

    Barnhaven auriculas: Our Barnhaven border auricula and double auricula strains have been line-bred for years in a huge range of colours which means the seed strains will come true. i.e if we cross a red border with another red border we are sure to get seeds that will produce red borders. 

    Double auriculas can also set seed however semi-double or single forms with double genes are also used as they produce more pollen so there may be a few singles in the mixture you receive.

    Flowering period: Mid-spring- early summer.

    Culture: They are very easy to grow as long as you ensure they are in a free-draining spot in part-shade. They look best in large pots, troughs or planted in groups at the edge of a border or rockery. They can be divided every two or three years as they tend to get a bit leggy. Some will cultivars will produce quite a lot of seed.

    For more information about growing Border auriculas, please consult our section on Garden auriculas.

    For more information on sowing Barnhaven auriculas see the section on Sowing Primula seeds.

  • Show and Alpine auriculas
    Show and Alpine auriculas

    Here you will find seed from our collection of named auriculas. These are some of our most exciting seed to grow. Who knows what genes are lurking in these little beauties that have been crossed with all sorts of things for centuries. This is also the fun of it because you can get a real mix of surprises. For example when you cross a red Self with a red Self there will invariably be some red Selfs in the results but also some pinks, darks reds, light reds, blues but maybe even some alpines or even a yellow! We hand-pollinate a selection of mother plants every year which means there will be a higher proportion of plants that are true to the mother plants (ie. We will cross a light-centred alpine with another light-centred alpine, which will give a high proportion of light centred alpines). Any open-pollinated seed is a real surprise as the bees will have made their own wonderful selection. 

    So you might get the next prize-winning auricula for the Show bench, some really beautiful flowers for your garden, or maybe a few for the rubbish heap but give it a try. 

    Please note as some of the Show auriculas produce very little seed some of the packets only contain 20 seeds and not the usual 35. Please check the product descriptions. 

    Flowering period: Mid-spring- early summer.

    Height: 10-15cm

    Culture:  Show auriculas usually grown in pots and kept sheltered from excess wet in the winter. It is best is they are given some cover from the rain as the 'paste' in the middle can run. 

    For more information on growing Show auriculas, please consult our section on Show auriculas.

    For more information on sowing Show auriculas, please consult our page on Sowing Primula seeds.

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