Pic 1:

I know that 3 of these are astilbe seedlings, but don't know about the others.

Pic 2:

Small astilbe seedling hiding here too, but don't know what the others are.

Pic 3:

Couple astilbe seedlings here too.

Pic 4:

Small astilbe seedling on the right.

Pic 5:

Pic 6:

I had pulled out the 2 on the bottom, but then stuck them back in after having second thoughts...after already pulling a bunch of others :(

Pic 7:

The bluish one is a sedum seedling, but the rest? I've pulled most of the ones with pointy tips once they get this tall, since they seem too tall to be young primrose seedlings.

*Pic 8:

The one at the top is one of my primrose plants. The one on the bottom looks crinkly enough to be a primrose seedling, but it looks too leggy so I've sadly already pulled a couple of these and now thinking I shouldn't have :(

*Pic 9:

The small one in this pic is the only one that I definitely recognize as a young primrose seedling. The other two look like the one from the previous pic, which I'm unsure about...regrettably, already pulled out a couple that looked the same since they look too leggy for primrose seedlings but they do have a similar texture...

Pic 10:

Pic 11:

Pic 12:

This one's growing next to a salvia, and I've pulled out a couple of similar ones already, but now I'm wondering if this might be a salvia seedling (sorry, this one's off-topic for this thread).

Pic 13:

Some of these look a bit fuzzy, which I don't think young primula seedlings do(?).

I believe primrose seed needs stratification and you won't see germination until spring.

Thanks, Cecily! I think you might be right about that. I did sprinkle some other primula seeds around late last Fall and again in late Winter, and only got a few seedlings from one of those two sets of seeds this Spring, so there's a chance that the rest of those previous/older seeds might be popping up now...rather than the new seeds sprouting up already.

I'm hoping that someone recognizes what the "weeds" in these pics are so I can hopefully pull them if there's no chance of them being primula. Basically there are two types of younger somethings that look like possible primulas to me, one with pointy tips that I'm thinking isn't primula, and one with rounder tips that I think might be. Plus one type (3 little plants) that all have the possible primula leaf texture but the leaves look too long and leggy to me. And there's one really round, low to the ground one that's next to the salvia, and I'd like to know if that's a salvia seedling or something else, so that one's a bit off-topic.

I don't know what a primula seedling looks like so I am not seeing them. What I do see in a number of the pictures are looking like Shasta Daisy, New England Aster and a Goldenrod.

Ah, thanks Christopher! I do have a few New England asters (all new late last Fall so haven't bloomed here yet, but could have arrived with some seeds in their pots). Only have a small, short shasta daisy that did bloom this year but is on the other side of the yard. If I recall, the next-door neighbors have a big clump of a tall shasta daisy. And our backyard is conservation area that's probably 95% goldenrods! Didn't know what its young seedlings look like.

Ah primula will germinate quite readily if sown fresh. Even when still green. I sow cowslips, oxslips, auriculas in the summer. There seems to be a window of a couple of months before the seed coat dries and hardens, when they will sprout within weeks, rather than months. Later than that, the seeds slip into protective dormancy which will require winter stratification. to break. Having said that, I can't see any seedlings which look like potential primula. I grow quite a few (of the easy) primulas, despite living in the most primula-unfriendly part of the UK, and generally, they are one of the most straight-forward seedlings to identify, possessing that rugose crinkliness from the off, while keeping to a compact rosette.

For the identification of the seedlings in your photos, you are going to need someone with more acuity than myself...but luckily, this forum has a couple of contenders for 'identifier of the century'.

Rosaprimula, thank you much!! I didn't know that about fresh seeds vs dried! And I'm relieved on one hand to hear that none of these look like primula, and yet also concerned because I'll soon need to dig and amend a nearby area, which the new seeds might have "flown" into...and so I might end up losing a lot of them. Wish I'd saved some of the seeds for Fall/Winter sowing, but too late now...probably can't get any more seeds from that source (a gardener friend of a gardener friend, and therefore not someone I know or have direct access to). Reason that this particular seed source is important though is that there is a slight chance that some of her seeds might end up producing plants with variegated flowers, which I've never before seen in any primulas. I'll attach a pic of the lady's plants. Sadly she had no seeds to share from the variegated plants themselves (probably since she only has a few of them), but I'm thinking that her others might still be able to produce such plants too since these popped up in her flowerbeds as well and she advised us to plant the light pink ones and dark pink ones near each other.

Pic 14 (not mine):

if you have established plants around.. you ought to have the resource to compare the leaves of seedling to .. eh???

thought the first 2 leaves might not be true to type.. after the third.. they should be mini me's of momma or auntie plant ...

ken

Ken, sort of... I'm pretty new to primulas, last Fall having received older seedlings that were a good size but hadn't yet bloomed. Also last Fall, I sprinkled primula seeds (of another color, not sure about "kind") around for the first time, and got a few seedlings from them this Spring. Their second set of leaves still looked nothing like the adult plants...the third set maybe a little. The new seeds I sprinkled around less than two months ago are of yet another color, maybe kind...these are all unnamed. Anyway, I took pics of the young seedlings this Spring, but somehow forgot to take any after that, and now they're too big to be useful for early ID anymore. With these new weeds that popped up, I was afraid I missed the early window during which I might be able to recognize them as primulas, and it might be a while longer before they grow big enough to where they resemble the adults. And since they aren't all the same primulas, just wanted to make sure that I wasn't pulling out plants that I thought were weeds like I've sadly done before. Plus it would be nice to know what these weeds *are*, too. Hence, proper ID of these mystery seedlings would be appreciated...

Attaching pics of this Spring's seedlings, which is the first (and so far, the only) set of primula seedlings I've grown from seed myself.

Pic 15:

Pic 16:

My own seedlings are the teeny ones between the bigger primulas and the astilbe. Not the two medium sized ones with no blooms that are between the big blooming ones, but the tiny ones in front of them.

Thank you much! Ah, so those few leggy ones are primroses...of course I already pulled out a couple from the same area that looked the same. Didn't notice them early on, and then later didn't recognize them as primrose seedlings since they look so much more leggy than the others did at this size. These could be a different kind though.

Just went back and numbered the pics, plus added a star in front of pics 8 and 9. Thanks again! I'll go ahead and pull all the aster-looking ones then.

Lovely numbers 😉

LOL, thanks!

Don't know if you remember, but earlier this year I was asking about astilbe seedlings vs weeds, and you identified those weeds for me too (as well as the one set that I was hoping were fruit tree seedlings but were not, which you ID-ed correctly too!), so I was able to pull them all out. Now, as you can see in some of the pics above, the astilbe seedlings have popped up too! Sadly I'll have to move them soon so I can dig and amend that area (poor drainage and moss is all over now). Haven't been very successful moving young astilbe seedlings so far.

P.S.: I'm amazed and curious...how are you able to ID all of these plants and weeds, especially at such early stages?

I've just looked at a lot of plants.