Let’s hear it for the mighty primrose! The mighty what? I hear you ask.

Well, apparently the primrose has been voted the favourite wild flower in Scotland. And not just north of the Border. It has also emerged as the favourite in Wales and Northern Ireland.

Meanwhile, the bluebell has been named as England’s favourite.

Quite why the primrose has emerged top in Scotland — land of the thistle — is not totally clear.

Dr Trevor Dines, botanical expert at Plantlife, the organisation behind the vote, says: “I’m really surprised – and quite delighted - that the primrose has come out tops in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This might reflect their curious pattern of occurrence; in northern and western Britain, where it’s wet and cool, primroses often spread out of woods and colonise roadside banks and verges.

“Perhaps they’re more visible as a result and are just more part of people’s lives.” Many voters were keen to explain their choice of wild flower.

Dr Dines says: “One chap told me he voted for primrose because he thought they were ‘just perfect, and could not be improved in any way’”.

In Scotland, primrose was way ahead from the start, pushing “English bluebell” into second place and having a close-fought tie with harebell – an attractive wild flower often called “bluebell” in north of the Border.

When I received the press release from Plantlife which promoted the popularity of the primrose, I wondered if the flower featured anywhere in the work of Robert Burns, who wrote about the mountain daisy — “Wee, modest, crimson-tipped flow’r”.

As I discovered, there is a song by Burns called The Primrose which he penned in 1793.

Its opening lines are: “Dost ask me, why I send thee here, This firstling of the infant year?

Dost ask me, what this primrose shews, Bepearled thus with morning dews?” No one could say it better than Rabbie!