‘Red Star' and ‘Purple Cloud': Two New Cultivars of Primula Forbesii Franch. as Potted Flowers and Bedding Plants

Primula forbesii Franch. (baby primrose) is a biennial wild flower and abundant in many places across Yunnan province in South China. It exhibits many desirable ornamental traits, including rapid growth, long flowering season, loaded flowers and pleasing fragrance. To improve its flower sizes and colors, seeds of wild baby primrose were collected from Kunming and five thousand seeds were germinated and grown in a greenhouse in Beijing in August 2000 as the first generation. We discovered that some ornamental traits of the first generation had been improved slightly, a few of darker pink flowers and special petal features appeared. We germinated seeds, grew plants, evaluated flowers, and collected seeds from darker pink flowers and serrated emarginated petal apices flowers during 2001 to 2004 seasons. After additional four year targeted breeding and selection, two new cultivars, ‘Red Star’ and ‘Purple Cloud’, were produced in 2008. Compared with wild ones, both cultivars exhibit many more desirable traits, including much longer flowering season, many more flowers, and stronger fragrance. ‘Red Star’ is purple-red with large flower diameter and ‘Purple Cloud’ has petals with serrated emarginated apices that make them look like snowflakes. Both new cultivars could be cultivated as potted flowers and bedding plants. To grow them, seeds usually germinate in two to three weeks at 20-25C. After 3-4 true leaves are produced, seedlings should be transplanted into desired pots with peat: perlite based media or outdoor garden. The plants take approximately 3 months from sowing to flowering. They are excellent potted flowering plants for Christmas and the Lunar New Year. Dr. Qixiang Zhang is the corresponding author.