non fiction essay This is probably my favourite British wild flower. It takes me right back to my childhood when they were a common sight in fields and we used to pick them by the handful and stuff them into jam jars filled with water. I grow these from seed many years ago and they have happily spread themselves around the garden.

When cowslips and primroses grow in close proximity to one another, they cross pollinate to produce an interesting variation called a false oxlip – in a true oxlip, the flowers droop to one side.