Primroses seem to be the kind of flower that you take for granted. Until you see one on a day late in spring in a Himalayan meadow so high that you are slightly short of breath for the lack of oxygen while crossing it. That would be the drumstick primrose (Primula denticulata). That’s why I was surprised to see it flowering in December in a greenhouse in Darjeeling’s Lloyd Botanical Garden.
I’d grown familiar with this plant in earlier visits to the Himalayas. More than a decade ago, I’d grown jaded enough to ignore it when I saw it. Seeing it flowering in winter in the hothouse, I wondered when I’d last seen it. The last photo I could find of one was from a walk in Sikkim’s Yumthang valley in 2010. Why haven’t I seen it after that? I checked for news about it, and the only news I could see was that the warming climate can now cause it to bloom in January if the temperature rises above 15 Celsius. But there were no reports of it disappearing. So I guess I just haven’t been at the right place at the right time.
So I was glad that a mad botanist in Darjeeling had decided to move these plants indoors. It was like seeing an old friend in a monkey cap sipping a hot chai in winter. I’d remembered the extreme variability in colour that this plant has. Of the two stalks of flowers next to each other, one was purple, the other pink. I walked on, resolving to visit the mountains in spring more often.
Don't hold your breath 
