Whether as a bright, yellow ornament for the home garden or as a medicinal plant in the herb bed: cowslips are popular garden perennials. All types of spring heralds are easy to plant and do not require too much care. Propagation is also very easy with self-collected or commercially purchased seeds. However, neither the plants themselves nor their parts, including the seeds, may be collected from wild populations. Cowslips are protected in Germany and many other countries.
The cowslip reproduces itself by sowing
Cowslips are cold germs
First of all: cowslips are extremely cold germs and sprout best at temperatures of around 10 to 15 °C, although stratification should take place beforehand. The easiest way to achieve these conditions is to sow seeds in autumn, which can easily be done directly outdoors. Stratification is best done according to this scheme:
- First store the seeds for about four weeks at about 15 to 20 °C in a warm and humid place.
- You can use a seed tray with moist sand and place it on the windowsill.
- The seeds are then stored at temperatures between - 4 and + 4 °C, preferably in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator.
- This phase should last about six weeks.
- After the cooling period, storage takes place at temperatures between 5 and 10 °C.
- This phase should also be maintained for a few weeks.
- Avoid strong temperature fluctuations as well as sudden, erratic increases to over 20 °C.
- It is best to increase temperatures slowly.
The seedlings are planted either in pots or immediately outdoors as soon as possible. The pre-cultivation of the cowslips can take place from January.
It is best to sow seeds in autumn
If you want to propagate cowslips from seeds you have collected yourself, you should ideally sow them immediately after harvesting. Unfortunately, the seeds do not remain germinable for long and cannot be stored for too long. Sowing takes place outdoors or in seed trays as soon as possible, whereby you should observe the following rules:
- The substrate / soil should be as lean as possible and well prepared.
- Cover the fine seeds very lightly with finely crumbled soil.
- Keep the seed surface slightly moist.
tips
Like all primroses, primroses tend to become hybrids and quickly mix with other primula species. The result can be exciting and decorative, but also look pretty weird. So if you don't want to breed hybrids but "pure" cowslips, you should keep a safe distance between different Primula species.