Growing wild flowers from seed and my 16th favourite wild flower, the Cowslip, Primula veris

My next blog post is going to be a comparison between establishing wild flowers from seeds and using wild flower matting but for now, here is my 16th favourite wild flower, the cowslip.

I was having a bit of a de-weeding session in my garden at the weekend and came across a little patch of cowslips that I had forgotten I'd planted under the Cornus bush.  A couple of years ago, I put in three plants, now there must be at least five times that many.  That's the beauty of perennial wild flowers, they just keep growing and multiplying year after year.

cowslips

Rumour has it, that St Peter dropped the keys to Heaven and the first cowslip sprang from where they fell.  Rumour also has it that the word "cowslip" came about because the seeds like to germinate in the remains of cow pats - or cowslop.  Either way, the sight of a field full of cowslips in the spring never fails to chase the winter blues away.
Cowslips are included in the Meadowmat seed mix.  So far I haven't spotted any signs of them germinating but like most wild flowers, they can be slow to show themselves.  They definitely need a frost on them before they'll spring into life, so maybe in April 2013, once the plants have matured enough to flower, I'll have some more lovely nodding yellow blooms in my garden.  I'm told they make good wine, but I think they give more pleasure in the field than they ever could in a bottle.