Pretty Primrose (Primula vulgaris)

I receive this beautiful gift every winter from my very sweet Mom. She was so excited to see them in the food market, she had to bring some early spring home!

Nothing signals the beginning of spring more than these beauties. I especially love the butter colored yellow ones......

Only long-tongued insects, such as bees and moths can ensure cross-fertilization of these little beauties.An infusion of the flowers has been used to treat restlessness and insomnia, an infusion of the root has been used to help headaches related to nervousness. A salve can be made from the leaves to apply to wounds.


Shakespeare found them inspiring and wrote about them in many of his works, here he refers to them as cowslips, which are in the primrose family.....

The cowslips tall her pensioners be:

In their gold coats spots you see;

Those be rubies, fairy favours,

In those freckles live their savours:

I must go seek some dewdrops here

And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.

A Midsummer Night's Dream, 2. 1

The little ladies were inspired to dissect the flowers and draw them in their nature journals. Fauna studied the purple one......

Rainy studied the red one....

My baby sis picked up this incredible tool for the girls one Christmas. It is called The Eye Clops, it's a very easy to use microscope that projects images onto the tele. She picked it up on sale at Target. We use it for everything to see "up close and personal." As you can see, it has been used to look at dirt! We used it today to look at the little hairs on the primrose stem, the plant cell structures and the different colors of pigment of the flowers.

Next time you go to the food market, don't overlook these little late winter, early spring beauties. Bring one home and put it in a sunny window to admire and to remind you that spring is right around the corner.