Mimosa and Cowslips

Both of these are in flower at the moment in my garden.

I bought the Mimosa tree ( Acacia dealbata) at Trebah gardens in Cornwall, about 3 years ago. It was quite small then and this is the first time it has flowered.

The mimosas at Trebah were really large and full of flower. I bought another mimosa (Acacia pravissima) there on the advice of the gardener at Lammoran House Gardens

at St Mawes. This one flowered after 1 year and does not grow so big.

Since walking through the wild mimosa woods in Madeira I had wanted one for my garden.

There they are in flower in January and February and the scent from all those trees together is wonderful. You can buy a bunch of mimosa from the market in Funchal for 1 euro.

Cowslips what a comical name, or in Latin, Primula vera, prefer chalky soil so will grow in my garden. I bought a plant a few years ago and it seeded itself. It is now growing in grass in an area of the garden that I have tried to make into a little bit of wild flower meadow. I have tried to grow ox eye daisies there but they prefer the flowerbed. The flowers smell lovely and are used by herbalists. When I was about 8 or 9 we used to go and pick bunches of them from a steeply sloping field outside the village where I lived. Local people used to fill sacks with the flowers and take them home to make wine.