MHG Volunteer Blog: Week 12 - Cowslip

It's time for the latest blog from our dedicated team of volunteer gardeners at Pontefract Castle.

Find out more about their blog series here.

24 March 2025

The weather started to warm up today! Dave continued to dig the trench to separate the MHG from the spoil heap of the excavated gatehouse. This is an attempt to create a “fire-break” from the ever-encroaching weeds.

There was a backdrop of an incredibly loud buzz of bees from the rosemary. Carole pruned the southernwood and blackcurrant sage bushes. She offered pieces of them to children from a local school who were visiting. The children were able to smell plants that they would not normally be able to reach. 

The rosemary bushes in the Medieval Herb Garden, full of busy, buzzy bees

Carole chopped back the fennel. She then potted on some verbena bonariensis, which will probably go on sale in a few weeks’ time. She rewrote the labels for the valerian (true valerian, not the red type which grows like a weed all over the place). This will go on sale next week. She also put out some more rhubarb on the plant barrow.

Plant of the week: Cowslip, Palsy Wort, Key Flower (primula veris)

Cowslip's specific name comes from 'primula', from the latin 'primus' (first), and 'veris', meaning spring.  By the 16th century they were known as 'cowslips'. This comes from the original old English 'cowslop', because the plant was usually found in cow pastures by cow pats.

The cowslip is a perennial evergreen plant. It has coarsely toothed leaves which form 6 to 15cm rosettes. It has a flowering height of up to 25cm. 

It has 10 to 30 yellow blooms, dotted with orange spots, on single, hairy stems. These flower in spring. Cowslip has a short, strong tap root and thick fibrous rhizomes. Through these it can hibernate over winter. It prefers sandy or chalky soil, which is low in nitrogen, in sun or partial shade.

Cowslip growing in the Medieval Herb Garden

Culinary uses of cowslips

Cowslips smell a bit like apricots. The flowers have a citrus flavour.

Young cowslip leaves used to be eaten in country salads and mixed with other herbs to stuff meat. The flowers were made into a delicate conserve. Cowslips are still used in salads in Spain. 

In England, the flowers are used to flavour wine and vinegar. However, be aware that cowslip wine can be slightly narcotic!

Folklore and other facts about cowslips

In Norse mythology, cowslips were thought to be the key to entering the goddess Freyja’s palace. In Christianity the flower was linked to the Virgin Mary. It became known as 'Mary’s Keys'.

In the Middle Ages cowslip was also known as 'St Peter’s Herb' or 'Petronella'. It was said to have sprung up from the ground where St Peter dropped the keys to Heaven, shocked that people were sneaking into Heaven.

In Wales, long cowslip stalks are said to predict a wet summer, and short stalks predict a dry summer.

In Ireland, on Beltane (May Day) farmers would smear cowslip juice on the udders of cattle. This was intended to protect the milk from being stolen by supernatural means.

Cowslips are picked on Midsummer’s Eve to protect from evil spirits.

In the Victorian language of flowers they represent beauty and grace.

Medieval uses of cowslips*

Celtic Druids used to add cowslips in potions to help with the absorption of other herbs. When mixed with thyme it was used against bronchitis.

In the Middle Ages cowslips were “commended against the pain of the joints called the gout, and slackness of the sinews, which is the palsy. The decoction of the roots is thought to be profitably given against the stone in the kidneys and bladder; and the juice of the leaves for members that are loose and out of joint, or inward parts that are hurt, rent, or broken” (from Gerard's 'Herbal').

They believed that “the flowers are held to be more effectual than the leaves, and the roots of little use. An ointment being made with them, taketh away spots and wrinkles of the skin, sun-burning, and freckles, and adds beauty exceedingly; they remedy all infirmities of the head coming of heat and wind, as vertigo, ephialtes, false apparitions, phrenzies, falling sickness, palsies, convulsions, cramps, and pains in the nerves”.

However, cowslips can cause nausea, diarrhoea or skin irritation if you are susceptible to saponins, IBS or sensitive skin.

*As always, this isn't to be considered medical advice today. Please don't use any plants mentioned in these blogs as medicine without advice from a doctor.