Primroses could be said to have a dual personality. They are beautiful harbingers of Spring, and yet they are also symbols of sinful pleasure. Shakespeare told us all about it in Macbeth, and also in Hamlet.
Ophelia:
I shall the effect of this good lesson keep, as watchman to my heart. But, good my brother, Do not, as some ungrateful pastors do, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven; Whiles, like a puff’d and reckless libertine, Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, And recks not his own rede.
It was the favourite flower of statesman and prime minister Benjamin Disraeli, and the anniversary of his death in 1881 is marked by Primrose Day, April 19th.
So, let’s dare to tread the primrose path, and look at some lovely pictures sent to me by a group member.
And here’s an invitation. Let’s have a Primrose Day on 19th April 2020.
This one looks like a Jack-in-the-Green, which has a ruff of small green leaves immediately beneath the flower.
Lovely!
The Pleasure Gardener 