You can grow one too . (Cowslip (Primula veris))

Member Name: mumsymary

Product:	Cowslip (Primula veris)
Date:	13/02/07 (1824 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: pretty

Disadvantages: absolutly none, except maybe that you can not pick them in wild .

Cowslip, Primula veris.
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Cowslips are a member of the primrose family easy to see the similarities. When tidying up my garden I noticed the cowslip leaves and I will now tell you about cowslips. It is illegal to dig up the plants or pick the flowers where there are growing in the wild. However the ones in my garden came from a garden centre as there are many plants and seeds for sale legally.


Prepare yourself for a romantic picture. I have memories of the village green where I grew up been covered in cowslips. (It still is). Its is in the late 50’s to late 60’s. I lived in the thatched cottage standing next to the green. My grandfather used to make cowslip wine so in April and May we children would go and pick as many flowers as we could find, we collected buckets full returning home we would pull the flowers off the stems and granddad would make his wine. Many villagers would do the same. The numbers of cowslips has decreased a little in this spot but there are still many on the village green. . The numbers increasing again after it became illegal to pick the flowers. The cowslip plant decreased in number due to the ploughing up of meadows and over picking of the flowers

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Cowslip - what it looks like
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Cowslip leaves grow in a rosette on the ground they are slightly crinkly and have short fine hairs growing on them. The leaves are about 10-15 cm long. From the centre of this rosette grows a stalk this grows to between 20 and 30 cm long sometimes shorted in a soil that has poor nutrition.
On top of the stalk grows a cluster of yellow flowers all on separate little stalks.
The flowers are small 1 -2 cm. they are shaped a bit like a funnel, can be compared to a bell shape. If you look closely at the petals you will find little orange dots at the base. These flowers are very pretty. The cowslip flowers from April to Mat it’s an early flower that awakens the delight of spring in the country side.



Why the name cowslip
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The name yes a cowslip was a polite way of naming the flower that grows in pastures where cows graze and poo leaving cow pats and manure .


Soil and how to grow cowslip
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Cowslips do not like an acid soil.

The soil a cowslip likes to grow on moist humus rich soil. The cowslip is happy in a meadow does not like to grow in woodland where it is shaded. Cowslips like the sun. Will grow in a part shaded spot well though. If you are sowing the seeds they like a cold spell before they germinate. (Vernalisation) Cowslips quite like my chalky soil in the garden but also grow well on thee clay soil in the village I grew up in... When we are driving I often see cowslips growing on roadside verges.

You are not allowed to pick cowslip flowers or dig up plants in the wild to transplant in your own garden. However many garden centres sell the plants and cowslip seed is available to buy a packet of seeds is available from http://www.kingsseeds.com/kolist/1/FLOWERS/C/COWSL IP for 99p or from http://www.alchemy-works.com/primula_veris.html for $2.25. There are several other seeds merchants where you can get the seeds.
A cowslip is a perennial so will last for several years. Well worth growing for a spring garden. A lot of wild flowers are disappearing from the countryside and people now growing them in their gardens are keeping the species alive.


Use
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Cowslip s flowers are not only used to make wine, but in the old days were used to ease pain – head aches and also good for calming the nerves. I do not know of any ready made remedies and am not qualified to give advice or recipe for medicine , so if you are interested in using as a medicine do check your facts .However I know just the sight of the first cowslips or a field , the village common outside my dads house certainly lifts my spirits . Cowslips are a magical flower; the juice applied to a cow’s udder apparently stops the fairies and spirits stealing the milk!

Wildlife
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Bees love to suck the nectar from these flowers . Cowslip is the food plant for the Duke of Burgundy's Fritillary butterfly. The caterpillars eat the leaves .


Shakespeare used the cowslip I the Tempest. Act 5 scene 1
“Where the bee sucks there suck I. In a cowslips bell I lie”

How I would love to be walking in the meadow in the sun with hundreds of cowslips at my feet . (I can dream .)

Summary: Pretty wild flower