Why everyone’s talking about... Primroses
Their pale yellow flowers starting to brighten up roadsides and woodlands is a sure sign that spring is on its way. So why are primroses so special?
Their name comes from the Latin ‘prima rose’ – the ‘first rose’ of the year – even though they are not roses. Their early bloom, coming just after snowdrops, means they symbolise youth and better times ahead. Indeed, Italy has adopted the primrose as the symbol of its Covid vaccination programme.
So what of its botany?
Primroses are yellow in the UK – the colour is a favourite of the Queen, who wore a primrose dress to William and Kate’s wedding. White species are found on the Balearic Islands and pink and red ones in the Balkans. There was once a myth that you’d get a red primrose if you planted it upside-down. You don’t. Evening primrose, of medicinal oil repute, is a different species entirely.
Who likes them?
Who doesn’t! In Hamlet, Shakespeare coined the phrase ‘primrose path’ to evoke the easy life, while poet Gerard Manley Hopkins waxed about the flowers’ ‘instress of brilliancy’. Chefs turn the leaves into soup or tea, and young flowers can be made into wine. But the primrose’s biggest fan was 19th Century Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who dubbed it ‘the ambassador of spring’, with Queen Victoria regularly sending him bunches. For years, Britons wore primroses in their buttonholes on the anniversary of his death, April 19, 1881, ‘Primrose Day’. Tributes are still laid at his statue in Parliament Square on that date. His death inspired a powerful movement of workingclass Tories called The Primrose League, guided by Randolph Churchill, Winston’s dad, under a banner of patriotism. It boasted almost two million members at its peak.
And Primrose can be a name…
Sometimes, as with serial killer Dr Harold Shipman’s wife, Primrose Shipman – although she has a new identity now. It’s also the unlikely middle name of former Scotland goalkeeper Bob Wilson, since it was his family’s tradition to give children t heir mother’s maiden name. ‘It was the best kept secret in football,’ he once lamented. ‘Now it leads the quiz questions.’