First primrose, home

The day started out chilly, with temperatures in the low teens, and I feared that all of those early blossoms would be taking it on the chin. So it sometimes goes with pioneers and teenagers—the folks who are always trying to push the boundaries. In the natural world, however, there's usually a conservative backup, so if the flowers that attempt to break out of their usual flowering times get talked sense to by a cold snap, there are always saner heads... well, blooms... waiting underground for better weather. Of course, it's also possible that the early ones are just plain endowed with the genetic gift of toughness. That would appear to be the case with this primrose, which Stasia and I observed in bud a couple of days ago and in half-flowering mode yesterday. I expected to find it limp today, but by the time the temperature had navigated its way above freezing, there was the garden beauty, fully opened and, leaves and all, looking none the worse for the meteorological insult.