Japanese Primrose Miller’s Crimson

This primrose stands apart from other damp ground and shade-loving favourites with its beautiful dark crimson, small bell shaped flowers and its even more intense dark crimson eye. The flowers rise up in layered whorls on stout stems over broad light-green crinkly cabbage-like leaves from late Spring. Japanese primrose prefer soil that is consistently moist, so a bank by the stream or ponds edge as a marginal is ideal. Primula Millers Crimson will eventually self-seed and colonise. A carpet of crimson candelabras mixed in with ferns and Hostas is something to behold. A good pollinator plant for the bees in spring and both deer and rabbit resistant. The Royal Horticultural Society has awarded it the prestigious Award of Garden Merit.

Site: Exposed, semi-sheltered to sheltered
Soil: Moisture retentive, humus-rich, clay, loam, moist to wet
Position: Partial shade
Season of Interest: Deep crimson flowers from late spring to early summer
Hardiness: Fully hardy
Height: 1.5ft 50cm) Spread: 1.5ft 50cm)