A fruitful and widely spread flower that shows its light yellow flowers most of the year in the hedgerows and across the fields and woods in Cornwall and elsewhere.
We used to pick them for the vases and in the house they even give off a slight perfume. I associate them with great happiness because in Devon they have to put out long stalks to get above the grass and they would be longer than my hands but in short grass they can be tightly bunches daring one to pick them and ruin the rosettes of flowers and green, crinkled leaves.
In more populated areas it has sometimes suffered from over-collection and theft so that few natural displays of primroses in abundance can now be found. I used to save them and bluebell bulbs from hedgerows where cars and lorries had ploughed out sections in passing. Happily now they are becoming strewn over the field here by the lodge and remind me of days when I would walk with my dogs and pick them for my mother.