Primula 3, photo by Harold Davis. View this photo larger.

Here are some more of the primrose photos from my birthday shoot along with a conundrum:

Why is a primrose prim?

I phrase this as a question because I don’t have an answer. Primroses, or members of the primula genus, or primulaceae, grow all over the northern hemisphere from the arctic to the tropics and a few places in the southern hemisphere as well.

Primroses have been cultivated for at least 500 years. Florist Associations promote the flower as meaning “I can’t live without you” — particuarly in a woman. (As an aside, you have to wonder about a trade association that managed to promote a desert weed with the only virtue that it flowers at the end of December into the Christmas plant, the poinsettia.)

Anyhow, there’s nothing prim about this lush and gaudy primrose cultivars. I love them!

View this photo larger.