It's a really good year for Cowslips, they are everywhere around here in Mid Suffolk although we could never get them to grow at the smallholding which was just 4 miles from the coast. We tried buying pots already growing but they would be OK for a year or so then fade away. We tried seeds and got nothing at all.
The tiny flowers were once used to make a country wine and way back in the time of the herbalist Nicholas Culpepper the leaves were used to make an ointment which "takes away spots and wrinkles".
There is some strange folklore around the cowslip (from my book Discovering The Folklore of Plants by Margaret Baker) - if planted upside down on Good Friday they would turn into primroses and if watered with bulls blood they would be red the next year. If planted by a door they will discourage unwanted visitors!
Although I included the Cowslip Fairy in a post in 2020. Here she is again.
How beautiful those cowslips look. Cheery little things.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
They are really putting on a good show this year
DeleteSo. Much. Green.
ReplyDeleteToday, on the first day of May, it snowed. Nothing stuck, but it's cold and we've got a fire going.
Yes, everywhere is greening up nicely
DeleteCowslips always stir fond memories of my grandmother's gardens. I tried transplanting a few of her cowslips to my garden and wasn't successful. Adorable print of The Cowslip Fairy. Have a safe & lovely week!
ReplyDeleteGoing by the folklore it seems as if they only grow how and where they want to
DeleteMy dad specialized in terrible jokes and you just triggered a memory: what made the bulrush? He saw the cowslip!
ReplyDeleteGroan!
DeleteThey are also in abundance in Dorset, one field is just yellow with them so they don’t mind a cold winter, the field was frozen for weeks. Sandra.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to hear that it's not just Mid Suffolk
DeleteThey have just been talking about them on radio 4. An abundance of cowslips thanks to our grotty winter.
ReplyDeleteWhen I heard they were talking about Cowslips just as I put the radio on I thought " A Ha! Got there first!"
DeleteI bought cowslips a few years back. They are now multi headed oxlips!
ReplyDeleteSeems they cross pollinate very easily
DeleteI've got 2 or 3 cowslips on the edge of my lawn. I've never seen them before but somehow they've just appeared this year.
ReplyDeleteWonderful - hope they don't turn into primroses
DeleteThey are such pretty little blossoms...
ReplyDeleteAll around the lanes they are looking wonderful this year
DeleteHow interesting, in Swiss German cowslips are called 'Schluesselbluemli' (key flowers - Schluessel/key bluemli/flowers)
ReplyDeleteSt Peter and his keys again
DeleteThey don't seem to do all that well in my space either. Perhaps they just don't like being 'organised'?
ReplyDeleteThey are so pretty. xx
I saw some in pots at a car boot sale recently but thought there was no point as they probably wouldn't survive in the garden
DeleteIn every place that we've ever lived I've tried to cultivate some Cowslips of my own and they never do well, it seems they grow where THEY want to and not where I want them too. They are beautiful though aren't they.
ReplyDeleteReally good this year - and it was confirmed by the Today programme on radio 4
DeleteFunny what you say about Culpepper Sue - as teenagers my friend and I were worried about our freckles and we boiled up some cowslip flowers, let the water get cool and then with cotton wool 'painted' our faces with the water for several days but it made not a scrap of difference - so the Culpepper idea must have gone into local folklore in Lincolnshire where I lived at the time
ReplyDeleteThat's amazing to hear that the story had passed down through the years
DeleteCowslip has a very pretty yellow flower. It must be beautiful growing in large masses. It is odd how some plants absolutely refuse to grow in some locations. Then other plants thrive for many years and then suddenly disappear. I've planted hollyhocks and they grow for one year very well, return less well the next year and then disappear entirely. I've decided I am not deemed to have hollyhocks.
ReplyDeleteI love Hollyhocks but they never do well for me yet at my Brother-in-Laws garden they pop up in cracks in the concrete path!
DeleteWhen I was a child, we had music class. A teacher would come in and we would sing. I remember a round that we sang about meadows and cowslips. I am sure there was a song...and surely it is a traditional song. But...I have tried to find it and cannot. Have you ever heard such a song?
ReplyDeleteNot come across that one although I googled and found this
DeleteWe'll go to the meadows, where cowslips do grow,
And buttercups, looking as yellow as gold;
And daisies and violets beginning to blow,.........
My mother loved cowslips - they grew everywhere when she was growing up in Hampshire, but I didn't see them until I went to World's End (can't remember which one)
ReplyDeleteI like the story of St Peter's keys.
There are even more now than when I was small - Hope it continues
DeleteThose are lovely, Sue!
ReplyDeleteWe have the bluebells blooming here and I always enjoy those.
I have bluebells in the garden but they are the Spanish invasion type and spread like crazy!
DeleteMaybe there were no cowslip fairies at the smallholding to help the cowslips grow.
ReplyDeleteWe had lots of Elder to keep away the witches so perhaps it kept away the Fairies too!
DeleteHow beautiful and what lovely folklore to go along with the photos.
ReplyDeleteI have a very small patch of cowslips that I'm happy to see came through the winter again. GM
ReplyDeleteWell, how fun that cowslips have such auspicious beginnings and wonderful stories.
ReplyDelete