Botanical name: Primula veris
Folk names: Fairy cups, bunch of keys

Type: Perennial

Wildlife: Spring nectar and pollen for bees including the long-tongued garden bumblebee, moths and other insects. The spring-flying hairy-footed flower bee can be partial. Caterpillar food plant of the plain clay, northern rustic, and lunar yellow underwing moths.

Flowers: flowers March to May

Decorative merit: Deep yellow, cup-shaped flowers with marked orange near the eye form a tubular corolla, that nod in bunches to one side of tall stems. Flat rosette of pale green wrinkled leaves. Sweet scent when newly opened. 10-20cm high. Grows from a short rhizome with long, thin roots, slowly forms a clump or spreads around lawn or meadow by seed.

Where: Sun or part-shade. Front of border, naturalise in unmown lawn or spring mini-meadow, rock gardens, raised beds or under hedging.  Grow in clumps to make a good spring show. Happy in well-drained soil.

Folklore: The name cowslip allegedly comes from them flowering near cow pats…’cowslups' meaning cowpat! It was believed that St Peter dropped the keys to Heaven and the first cowslip sprang from where they fell. Crimson spots in the throat of the flower were said to have magical powers to restore youthful bloom. William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: “In their gold coats spots you see/ Those be rubies, fairy favours, /In those freckles live their savours…” Carry a cowslip to bring good luck, or to preserve youthfulness. Strewn on bridal paths and worn on May Day. When cowslips where more numerous, they were used to make wine.

Primrose family relative.

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