My fondness for cowslips was documented in this blogg on 24 July 2016. My fondness for the world’s Great and Thoughtful Givers was described in On the nature of giving – and the giving of Nature (October 15, 2020).
For my birthday in 2020 one of those Givers presented me with a small parcel. Inside was a damp, colourless morsel of plant life. It was Primula veris. A cowslip.
On Tuesday 6 October 2020, in a small ceramic pot in my garden, there occurred a miracle of Nature. That delicate single cowslip, despite finding itself in an unfamiliar location, proved that it was not going merely to cling to life. It was blossoming, growing and preparing for the next stage in the cycle of its existence. It was going to give perennial pleasure to verisophiles for years to come.
After six weeks of colour, in 2020 – like so much on Planet Earth – it lay low. I moved it from the ceramic pot to a prime spot in the garden. It bloomed again with increased vigour in the Springs of 2021 and 2022.
A small white tag attested not only to its name but also to some of its qualities. The tag reads: ‘Small attractive English wildflower. Tea from the whole plant, particularly the flowers, is sedative and pain relieving. Cool position, protected and partly shaded. Perennial.’
In March 2023 I took courage and spade in hand and cut it into two. One half of the rootstock stayed in the flower border where it had shown itself to be viable. The other was potted up and went off to a different zone in the garden.
The surgery was successful – so much so that right now (September 2023) the potted half is strong and luxurious, with multiple blooms of luscious yellow.
Now is a good time to pay back. The Giver has received an unwanted gift. Visits to second hand bookshops and antique galleries will be subdued for a while.
But the spirit of thoughtfulness and care will not cease. The cycle of life will continue, despite short-term perturbation. Friends will unite. Special friends will be specially united. The seasons will roll round.
Confronted with local frosts or global pandemic, the cowslip and other sure signs of repetition, resilience and renewal will not stand by – but flourish.
