Sorie,

Can you be more specific? By primrose, I assume you mean primula, but know that you also could be referring to Missouri evening primrose or the common wildflower pink evening primrose.

Dawn

They are just the ones you buy in the grocery store!! I'm not sure what they are called. Sorry.
I saw them and just had a weak moment for color!!!

Sorie, No need to be sorry. I just wanted to figure out what kind you were talking about so I could answer your question.

I cannot say that I blame you either, because nothing calls out to a gardener's frosty winter heart more than the beautiful little flowering primroses in the grocery stores in the dead of winter. Those are primulas, probably polyanthus types, though I am just guessing about that.

Those primulas are very cold-hardy if they are properly hardened off before being exposed to cold temperatures. I believe most are cold hardy down to USDA Zone 2. Since the ones you see in the grocery store likely were raised in a greenhouse and then transported to the stores, they haven't had a lot of cold exposure. Before transplanting them into the ground, you'd need to gradually harden them off to tolerate the cold so they don't freeze on a cold night. Once they are hardened off, they should be fine. Unfortunately, primulas aren't very tolerant of heat, so the ones grown in the ground here as cool-season bedding plants usually are replaced with heat-tolerant bedding plants once our weather heats up. I don't think primula would survive a typical hot Oklahoma summer outdoors, although they might have a chance if they are growing in really humusy, rich soil that gets sun only early in the day and that remains well-watered in hot weather. Usally, though, heat bakes them to a crisp.

So, with primulas in our climate, your choices vary: you can enjoy them as house plants, enjoy them as cool-season annuals, or put them in the ground during the cool-season and the pot them up before it gets too awfully hot and return them to the house to ride out the hot summer inside in the air conditioning. Some people just use them as annual cool-season bedding plants or outdoor container plants and then yank them out and compost them once the heat here begins burning them up and they begin to decline.

I'll link a page about primulas from MOBOT.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Primulas

Thanks Dawn. I'll harden them off and plant later.

You're welcome! There are beautiful and so tempting when in the stores.