AURICULA (Primula auricula), an Alpine plant, which has been an inmate of British gardens for about three hundred years, and is still a favourite spring flower. It thrives best in a cool soil and shady situation. The florists' varieties are grown in rich composts.
Auriculas are best grown in a cold frame mounted on legs about 2 f t. from the ground and provided with hinged sashes. This frame should face the north from May to October, and south in winter. No protection will be needed except in very severe frosts, when two or three thicknesses of garden mats may be thrown over the glass, and allowed to remain on until the soil is thawed, should it become frozen.
Auriculas may be propagated from seed, which is to be sown as soon as ripe, in July or August, in boxes, kept under cover, and exposed only to the rays of the morning sun. When seed has been saved from the finer sorts, the operation is one of considerable nicety, as it not infrequently happens that the best seedlings are at first exceedingly weak. They generally flower in the second or third year, a few good sorts being all that can be expected from a large sowing. The established varieties are increased by taking off the offshoots at the time of potting in July or the beginning of August. But some varieties are very shy in producing offsets.