Gardens: primula and proper

The ditch which runs from a spring in the fields above us forms a wet crease between two of our fields. The land drains steeply into it from both sides and in places you can easily lose your wellies. The farmer before us did little with it other than spray out the brambles, which in our time here have seized their moment. This winter we made the big move to clear the length of it to reveal what lies underneath. Peeling back the undergrowth unearthed a series of cascades. They drop and gurgle from one level to the next and where the land falls more gently, the ditch runs in rubbly shallows. You couldn’t have animated it more beautifully.

 The elegant Primula elatior ‘Victoriana Gold Lace’. Photograph: John Richmond/Alamy

For a short while the water was visible, but it is closing over with the vegetation that was waiting in the wings. A giant primitive horsetail is already celebrating and so too is the deadly water dropwort that looks so much like watercress. We have ragged robin, campion, meadowsweet and angelica to look forward to, but the first plants to reveal

They have obviously been more than happy under the cage of the brambles, but this spring they have revelled in the light. They’re one of my favourite plants and since we have been here I have been dividing them to see if I can set off a number of colonies. They are easy plants if they have damp at the root and shade in the summer. In the garden they might be among summer perennials or beneath deciduous shrubs.

The primrose crosses readily – the parent may well be a cowslip or, in more gardened areas, a polyanthus. Many polyanthus have been bred to extremes with size of flower and strength of colour, but there are selections that retain an elegance. ‘Gold Lace’ is one of my favourites, with an almost black base and a piping of gold lining. The ‘Cowichan’ strain are like jewels, with dark coppery foliage and flowers that range from deep royal blue to ruby-red and burgundy. They were bred by Barnhaven, a wonderful primula nursery which is no longer in existence, but you can still seek them via Plant Finder.

 The elegant Primula elatior ‘Victoriana Gold Lace’. Photograph: John Richmond/Alamy

As child I had a Barnhaven catalogue, which in retrospect was written in thoroughly purple prose. The words had me lost in an exotic world where the plants were painted vividly in every detail. I will desist from such descriptions now, other than to say that as the primroses and polyanthus fade, the exotic bog primulas from Asia come into their own. Primula florindae, the giant Himalayan cowslip, is the most dramatic, rising to be more than 2ft tall in early summer. The candelabra primula, so named for its ascending whirls of flower, which open in sequence up the length of silver-dusted stems, are perhaps at their sensational best when planted en masse in a damp position. I am using rust orange ‘Inverewe’ and magenta Primula pulverulenta this year at the Chelsea Flower Show.

The bog primulas like the same ground as marsh marigold and are happiest in the damp marginal areas of a pond. They will self seed if competition is not too strong.