Primula ‘Val Horncastle’
‘Val Horncastle’ is an excellent double yellow primrose quite widely grown. It is a clear bright yellow that isn’t garish. It shows up well from a distance, and has a good full head of petals. It originates from a company in Derbyshire called Micro Plants. This company was set up by Martin Stokes and his business partner to microprop plants and was based at Longnor. In 1984 the company was about to send some plants to Holland and needed to put a name to a rather nice yellow double primrose. They decided to name it after their secretary Val Horncastle – a very good secretary Martin says! The plant had been grown from Barnhaven seed.
Sadly Val died in 2015. In her final years she unfortunately developed Alzheimers, but she must have been quite a lady. Finding normal calendars difficult to use she came up with an idea for a daily calendar. It was a big help for her, and a trial edition was very positively received by other sufferers in Derbyshire. The Memory Calendar is now sold through the publishers Chris Andrews Publications Ltd, www.cap-ox.com, with a donation from the profits going to Derbyshire Alzheimer’s Society and Oxfordshire SANDS.