Primula allionii

Today's the day ......................... for tufa

There's a new alpine house at the Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh.  

The striking design of the new tufa house incorporates essential overhead shelter from wet winter conditions, substituting for the protective snow cover that the plants would experience in the wild.  The house is open fronted to maximise air circulation and help keep the specimens free from disease.  The tufa (a form of limestone) was recycled from a road building project in Southern Germany.  The plants have been carefully inserted into bore holes drilled into the soft rock.  The holes are filled with special compost mixed with gravel and sand which is packed around the roots of the young plants.

It will take a few years to get really established - but here are some lovely little Primula allionii, which are normally to be found in the French Maritime Alps, looking quite at home already ...................