Spring Plant identification.

by Scott Pothecary
(Swansea, Wales.)

This quite attractive little flower is coming up all over my lawn and my next door neighbours lawn.

This one in the picture has pink flowers with a yellow centre. Though all the other ones are a pale yellow colour with a dark shade of yellow centre.

They're pretty little things and there's plenty of them out there. They are clearly early spring flowering plants/weeds but I'm not sure what they're called.

The lawn is a bit of a mess at the moment and is due for a chop. But I have sorted the lawn out I would be more than happy for them to stay and I am thinking of collecting the seeds from them. Any information on these plants would be fantastic, Kind regards Scott.


Drought Smart Plants reply:
Hi Scott, what you have there is a really great example of an ephemeral; a plant that comes out and flowers in the cool moist spring, then generally withers back in the heat of the summer.

These are Primroses, or Primula vulgaris. They love cool spring weather, which encourages them to bloom in lovely soft or bright colours, depending on the variety.

You can certainly try collecting the seed, as that's most likely where these originated.

Their natural habitat is in deciduous woodlands, where they bloom in early spring before the trees leaf out, in some cases in large numbers carpeting the ground. They require rich soil with plenty of humus, adequate moisture and shade during warm summers.

Happy planting!
Jacki