Primrose

Value to bees

Nectar

Moderate

Pollen

Moderate

As a honey crop

Not a honey source

Which bees, and why

Worked by early bumblebee queens, bee-flies and butterflies. The pin-and-thrum arrangement means a visitor moving between the two forms transfers pollen precisely where it needs to go — a mechanism Darwin worked out and wrote about at length.

A narrow corolla tube that favours long-tongued visitors. Short-tongued bees often take pollen and reach little nectar.

Worth knowing

Moderate on both counts, and it matters because of when it arrives rather than how much it offers.

Flowering

In flower

February to May (northern hemisphere)

February to May in Britain, sometimes opening in mild spells before Christmas.

When nectar flows

Nectar sits at the base of a narrow tube, so it is more accessible to long-tongued insects than to bees. Bee-flies and early butterflies are important visitors alongside bees.

Year-to-year variation

Reliable and small. This is a forage plant rather than a crop.

Growing it

Conditions

Part shade, moist humus-rich soil that does not dry out. Happiest on a north-facing bank or under deciduous shrubs.

Size

10-20 cm.

Native range

Western and southern Europe, in woodland, hedge banks and grassland.

Suits

Small gardens, Large gardens, Meadow or wildflower area, Containers and window boxes, Hedgerow

• Divide congested clumps immediately after flowering; they decline if left for many years.
• Naturalises well in grass and under hedges, and the wild species is a far better bee plant than the coloured polyanthus bedding forms.
• Never dig primroses from the wild. Buy nursery-grown plants of the native species.

What it looks like

A flat rosette of crinkled tongue-shaped leaves with pale yellow five-petalled flowers on short hairy stalks, each with a deeper yellow eye.