I'm not ashamed to admit this: I like dandelions. I think their flowers are beautiful, their leaves and form attractive [...] and the hoverflies seem to like them too.
I'm not ashamed to admit that I like dandelions. I think their flowers are beautiful, their leaves and form attractive (indeed considerably more so than many so-called ornamentals) and hoverflies seem to like them too.
They can be a pain when they invade flower borders or veg beds, and for some they're a menace in lawns. But I don't have a lawn, just grass with dandelions growing in it, and a tiny clump of daisies too.
Last year and the year before I hardly saw any dandelions. But this year I've never seen so many. The road verges are almost solid yello with their gorgeous golden flower heads, and a few uncultivated fields are beautifully decked in gold. What I want to know is, why? And is the dandelions' success story widespread or just in my corner of Hampshire?
I assume the weather conditions last year were responsible for the lack of dandelions, and perhaps the long, cold winter and burst or warm spring sunshine responsible for the recent dramatic display. I guess I'll not be alone in admiring their arrival - the weedkiller manufacturers may well be rubbing their hands in glee, too.
Will I be removing them from my grass? No, they'll be allowed to put on their fantastic display, though I may pull off their faded heads before the seeds form, to prevent them spreading. There was one I nearly removed from an elegant planting hole in the paved area where we often eat in the summer, but even that has been given a second chance. I watched the look of disbelieving horror on the face of a photographer who was here recently, I could almost hear him mutter, "and she's even got dandelions in flower". In a perverse way it gave me so much pleasure to see his narrow-minded disapproval that I decided to keep that dandelion there in pride of place!
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