No it doesn't need ericaceous soil but, like a lot of the Asiatic Primulas it is not easy to keep it growing in the garden, Bulba and I have tried several times - and will probably try again.

It does not tolerate our winters very well too wet and no deep blanket of snow usually to protect it from frost. Remembering that in its native habitat this primula grows at 3,000 metres getting the watering right during the growing season is also a challenge.

I would suggest keeping it in a clay pot in a deep sand plunge bed in a cold greenhouse, protecting from frost and watering from the bottom in spring a time when in the wild the primula would be getting water from snow melt streams but no rain. Later in the year you can top water as, by then, the monsoons would have hit the area they grow it.

Perhaps best to view as a short lived perennial. Hope you succeed with it.

My primula vialii are in my borders, they are at the lower ends of the borders where they enjoys the more moist situations. I have to split the clumps every couple of years, they don't mind what soil they are in, but I always incorporate leafmould into the new positions.
They are easy to propagate from the seed they produce too.

Good to know someone is able to grow them outside 2nd hand... Bulba did say to me that this was a likely response to my post. Wonder if it is the difference in our climates?

Maybe the climate, but being at my altitude on a hill that slides away done to the NW, the garden is the lowest part but surrounded by tall hedging on one side. I am open to the elements of the prevailing west wind. Thanks to nature, the winds are not salt laden this far in land that's the only benefit. But then my growing season is about 8 wks shorter than at sea level. So being cooler and being Wales much more moist than other locations, probably has sommat to do with it. :-)

Well we are cooler and moist but it simply wont 'do' with us, other Asiatic Primula's are fine.

Many thanks Moongrower and 2ndhand for your advice. I have already set the primula in the ground but will make sure I protect it during the winter to see if that helps to keep it.

If it doesn't I shall just have to regard it as a "short lived" plant.