There can’t be many more iconic heralds of spring than the delicate, buttery flowers of the humble primrose. Their sunny faces open and upwards-gazing, they’re filled with hope, in turn filling us with the welcome promise that longer, warmer days lie just around the corner.
Providing an early spring wildlife boost with nectar-rich flowers, primroses are the RHS Wildlife Wonder March Plant of the Month, meaning our wildlife experts have highlighted it as a top plant we can all grow to support The variety of living organisms (plants, animals, fungi and microorganisms) in a particular environment. Boosting the biodiversity of your garden has many benefits, including supporting wildlife, improving soil health and reducing the likelihood of pest and disease problems.
Plant breeding has produced Primula hybrids and cultivars in a wide range of bright colours – many flowering through winter – but to my mind, you can’t beat the simple, joyful elegance of the UK A native plant is one that originated or arrived naturally in a particular place without human involvement. In the British Isles, native plants are those that were here during the last ice age or have arrived unaided since.
What makes primroses great for wildlife?
Primroses are among the first flowers to open in spring, even starting as early as December or January in some areas in a mild winter. Reaching their flowering peak in March and April, they turn shady corners into early nectar stations when few other plants are in bloom, helping bee‑flies and overwintered butterflies get going – as well as lifting our own mood through dull, damp days.
As well as bee-flies, primroses attract common carder bumblebee queens and hairy-footed flower bees. The hardworking A term generally applied to non-woody, flowering plants that are natural to a particular area and grow there without human assistance. More accurately, British wildflowers normally applies to UK natives including plants introduced into the wild before 1500.
Where and how to grow primroses
This easy, reliable little Perennials are plants that live for multiple years. They come in all shapes and sizes and fill our gardens with colourful flowers and ornamental foliage. Many are hardy and can survive outdoors all year round, while less hardy types need protection over winter. The term herbaceous perennial is used to describe long-lived plants without a permanent woody structure (they die back to ground level each autumn), distinguishing them from trees, shrubs and sub-shrubs.
In the wild, you’ll find primroses in woodland edges – they’re often an indicator of ancient woodland – and shady banks. Think about mirroring this habitat, such as a spot in dappled light enriched with leaf mould, and your primroses will thrive.
Primroses are easy to grow from seed, sown on the surface of peat-free Can refer to either home-made garden compost or seed/potting compost: • Garden compost is a soil improver made from decomposed plant waste, usually in a compost bin or heap. It is added to soil to improve its fertility, structure and water-holding capacity. Seed or potting composts are used for growing seedlings or plants in containers - a wide range of commercially produced peat-free composts are available, made from a mix of various ingredients, such as loam, composted bark, coir and sand, although you can mix your own.
His and hers primroses: pin and thrum
When I was little, I remember spring walks in the woods with my grandad – a naturalist and botanist – turning into a game of ‘spot the pin, spot the thrum’. It turns out having two distinct types of flower is quite an unusual quirk of primroses.
Like most flowering plants, primroses have both male and female parts within the same flower. The male parts are the stamens, which are bundles of pollen held aloft on tall filaments. The female part is the stigma, a protruding sticky platform that receives the pollen.
What’s unusual about primroses is that they have two different ‘designs’ of flower. Each plant will have either one type or the other, not both.
In one type, the male stamens are prominent, proudly presenting pollen at the centre of the flower, while the female stigma is hardly visible. These are called thrum-eyed flowers. In others – pin-eyed flowers – the pinhead-like stigma is the obvious feature, while the stamens are tucked away down the throat of the flower.
A pin flower can’t pollinate another pin, and a thrum flower can’t pollinate a thrum. This prevents a primrose plant from self-pollinating. Encouraging outbreeding in this way improves Genes are small sections of DNA that code for particular traits. During sexual reproduction, genes of both parents are mixed to create a genetically different offspring. Plants grown from seed may not be 'true to type' and look like their parents, but genetic variation can be beneficial, creating new, interesting characteristics and sometimes improving resilience to environmental conditions or disease. On the other hand, plants grown from cuttings are genetically identical to their parents.
So next time you pass a bank of primroses, take a close look and see if you can spot the two different types of flower.
Rhubarb & custard: why are some wild primroses pink?
Faced with a bank of primroses, even far from any gardens, you’ll often notice a pink interloper. You might assume that these are a ‘garden escape’ or the result of a colourful garden Gardeners often use the word variety when referring to a specific plant, but the correct botanical term is 'cultivar'. Whichever word you use, it means a distinctive plant or plants, given a specific cultivar name and usually bred to enhance certain characteristics, such as flower or fruit size, colour, flavour or fragrance, plant size, hardiness, disease resistance, etc. Additionally, it is worth knowing that, botanically, variety has another meaning - it refers to a naturally-occurring distinct plant that only has slight differences in its looks. For example, Malva alcea var. fastigiata differs from typical plants by having an upright habit.
While this does happen, don’t be too quick to jump to outrage at the interlopers. Pink primroses do naturally occur in the wild – a natural variant caused by a mutation.
This commonly leads to mixtures of creamy yellow and murky pink shades, a phenomenon my grandad referred to as ‘rhubarb and custard’ – though I’ve yet to get this coined as the official botanical term.
Other top wildlife plants for March
Hopefully, I’ve convinced you by now to get outside and plant some native primroses. But why not see how many of our March Wildlife Wonders supporting cast you can also sneak into your garden:
- Violets (Viola) – these delicate blooms open very early, feeding spring‑active solitary bees and hoverflies, which are drawn to the rich purple or blue petals. The leaves are a vital food source for the caterpillars of several fritillary butterflies. Sweet violets are especially fragrant.
- Winter flowering heather (Erica carnea) – flowering from January to April and shrugging off cold snaps with ease, this tough, low-maintenance evergreen groundcover offers nectar and pollen to queen bumblebees, honeybees and early solitary bees on mild winter and spring days.
- Aubrieta – a favourite for walls, rockeries and dry border edges, aubretia’s tumbling masses of little purple or pink flowers provide a feast for short‑tongued bees from March to May, and are visited by early butterflies like small tortoiseshell, peacock, comma and holly blue.
- Pulmonaria – this is one of the most reliable early bee plants, pumping out blue, white or pink flowers from February to April and thriving in shade. The flowers may also be visited by brimstone, peacock and comma butterflies on warm days.
Try combining these star plants to layer up a buffet of early forage for pollinators this March. A small drift of primroses with violets at the edges, or mingling with Pulmonaria in shade, aubrieta cascading down the wall, and a patch or pot of winter heather, can turn even the smallest space into a pollinator service station that keeps the nectar flowing right through spring.
