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RE: Violas and Primulas.

in #viola6 years ago (edited)

Viola

Cool Season Blooming Beauties

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The National Gardening Bureau picked violas as their flower of the year for 2007. Violas and pansies are such relied upon stalwarts that many gardeners take them for granted and think they know everything there is to know about them. True, violas are easy to care for plants.

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But in the gardening world, nothing stands still. Newer varieties of violas are being introduced with bolder colors and larger flowers that bloom longer. Even better, they exhibit better heat and cold tolerance than the remarkably hardy varieties we're familiar with.

Primulas

What causes primroses (Primula species) to become male or female? Is there a stage in development where you can do something to change the gender of the flowers?

primrose pin and trum flowers

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Primroses are actually hermaphrodites - but they have 'pin' and 'thrum' flowers - one with short male parts and long female parts (pin), and the opposite for thrum. This is under genetic control.

primula eliator, pin

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I don't know if anyone has experimentally been able to overcome the genetic basis, but most likely if they did it would be impossible to duplicate inexpensively outside of a highly controlled laboratory setting.

primula eliator, trum

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