Primula

The true wild primrose of European woodland and hedge banks — low rosettes of crinkled, tongue-shaped leaves throwing up many single, pale soft-yellow flowers with a deeper yellow eye, one per slender stem, among the very first blooms of the year in late winter and early spring. This is the genuine species (gentle pale yellow), NOT the loud multi-coloured Polyanthus and Primula hybrids sold as winter bedding. POWO (Kew) places it native across western and southern Europe, North Africa, and southwest Asia; RHS holds it with the Award of Garden Merit and rates it fully hardy. Its flowers and young leaves are edible, and it is a crucial early nectar source for the first bees and butterflies.

A beloved spring meadow wildflower with one-sided clusters of nodding, fragrant, deep-yellow tubular flowers above rosettes of crinkled leaves. Once common in unimproved grassland across Europe and much reduced by farming, it is a genuine 'give it back' plant for naturalising in grass. Holds the RHS Award of Garden Merit and is fully hardy; unusually for a spring bulb-and-perennial group, its flowers and young leaves are edible. POWO (Kew) places it native across Europe into western Asia.