Talkback: Dandelions - Talkback - gardenersworld.com

05/05/2010 at 11:55

Pippa i agree and we also have a wonderful display of dandelions here in cardiff. Walking along in the park one day i remembered a bbc program by alyss fowler (edible garden) which said you could fry and eat dandelion flower heads. So into my bag went a dozen or so bright yellow dandelion heads. Later fried till crisp they tasted of honey and were the perfect complement to my lime leave and wild garlic salad. Long live the humble dandelion.

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05/05/2010 at 12:25

We have more dandelions this year too on the Berkshire/Wiltshire border. I think they look pretty in the lawn, but I know if it doesn't rain this weekend, my husband will be out there digging them all up and making his straight lines as he cuts the grass. I wonder why it's only men who have to mow in straight lines, or is it just that lawns are mainly cut by men?

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05/05/2010 at 15:47

I love dandelions as well, our pet rabbits love the leaves and of course the bees like them too, so please don't dig them up!

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05/05/2010 at 22:04

Dandelions are so prevalent this year due to the extremely cold winter we had this year. If anyone has ever tried to pull up a dandelion they will be aware of the extremely strong and deep roots that a dandelion has. With the damage to grass caused by the cold weather, it has taken a lot longer for the grass to establish itself this year and as a result this has given the advantage to all the dandelions lying in wait over the winter.

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06/05/2010 at 07:13

I love them, just as long as they're not on my allotment! I'm happy to let them grow on my "lawn", but then most of my garden has been invaded with wildflowers from the surrounding woodland and old borders. Most of the lawn is covered in wild strawberries! Shame the birds always get the fruit first.

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06/05/2010 at 12:42

Down here in Somerset - dandylions are rampant. Every year our local roundabout gets more & more yellow. Personally they make me shudder ... all those little seeds flying around and taking root everywhere. This year I have removed 5 bin bags of dandylions but I know I'm fighting a losing battle. Anyone else feel like me?

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06/05/2010 at 15:18

I was given a jar of Dandelion Syrup by some German friends last year, and have experimented making Dandelion Cake (Replacing Golden Syrup or Honey recipes) It is superb.

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06/05/2010 at 18:21

the other day i went outside picking all the dandelions in the garden (which is 1/3 of on acear) next day i woke up looked out side my window and they were all back

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06/05/2010 at 18:52

I don't mind the odd dandelion in the lawn, but around here dandelions to me means lazy articles that can't get off their lazy backsides and cut their grass. I live in a new build estate and coming from a cooncil scheme where the local neds didn't know what a lawnmower was I was under some false impression that the folk round here would have a wee bit more pride in their brand spanking new homes ... nah, just wee neds with big mortgages!

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06/05/2010 at 19:22

The Dandeions are doing very well for themselves in Belfast this year also. I have been leaving most of them for the Bees who also seem to be having a good year, perhaps they too are enjoying the Dandelion glut. I have been pulling up some of the Lions but only to make some space for the Daisies. Free flowers, how can you complain!

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06/05/2010 at 19:25

More dandelions than ever in Essex, too. And, like George, I've found that they return the next day after picking!

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06/05/2010 at 21:55

In Nottinghamshire they are very prolific and everywhere they look wonderful just not on my lawn x

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06/05/2010 at 22:16

Dandelions are a magnificent gold along the verges, up here in Scotland. At least just one root, if among precious plants, not a menace like the ground elder.

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07/05/2010 at 08:14

I must agree too! Since I do the same, pick off faded flowers so they don't spread. I have a few in my large front lawn but keep them there purely for the insects benefit. I live in Ipswich and there do seem to be more this year.

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07/05/2010 at 15:05

There are lots here in Kent too. I found a patch in a local lane that looked so beautiful I took a photo. If they weren't such thugs, we'd prize them. If they don't clash with my colour schemes I let them flower but try to deadhead. I also let other wild plants flower, like cow parsley, herb robert and red dead nettle, which lots of insects love. Early in the year there's not much else for them to feed on. I just pull them out when they look tatty. I don't even mind seeds on the compost heap because if they germinate I can hoe or pull them and leave them to feed the soil and provide a bit of mulch. It works for me. I also eat plants like bittercress and ground elder, though I'd happily get rid of the ground elder.

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08/05/2010 at 13:59

Dandelion roots are dried and make a very mild. caffeine-free "coffee". Dandelion leaves and flowers are diuretic so be careful when using them in salads - hence the French name,pis -en -lit, which means wet the bed. I believe there are 37 species of dandelion, some courser than others. I have seen two species in Bristol and also a slide of a meadow, miles across, full of a different species in Chile. The brightness of the flower(which looks blue to bees) is very cheering after a hard winter.

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08/05/2010 at 14:57

I love all the free flowers in my lawn. As well as the dandelions we have daisies, primroses and this year, for the first time, lovely tiny purple pansy type plants. I especially love that the day after mowing the lawn they are back. I remember when I was young when I asked my mum how to tell whether a plant was a weed or not she told me that a weed is just a plant in the wrong place - so if I love it it is obviously not a weed! - she did think however that I was crazy to actually transplant daisies INTO my lawn.

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08/05/2010 at 21:46

There are Dandelions all over Southern Ireland too. I too picked the heads off for a few days but was beaten back by the number of them appearing, started to cut the grass every other day to remove the heads but eventually had to revert to a lawn feed and weed killer - the lawn is around 1500 sq metres and cutting the grass was getting fairly time consuming.

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10/05/2010 at 04:02

Here in Ga USA I buy Organic Dandelions that are shipped in from California. The leaves make a great salad. They don't have any root because the farmer cut them off and sell them to the herbalists. Dandelions roots are well know for detoxification of the Liver. Unlike other diuretics, dandelion leaves contain good amounts of potassium, a mineral that is often lost during increased urination. There is also evidence that this property of dandelion leaves may normalize blood sugar, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taraxacum#Medicinal_uses

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10/05/2010 at 14:49

Some 49 years ago following the birth of my daughter my wife complained that unlike other visitors I did not bring a bunch of flowers at visiting time. On return home I noted a bunch of Dandelions in the garden , picked a well formed head and sent in an envelope to my wife. She never commented on receipt of same and I thought lost in post. Sadly my wife died in Nov 2010 and whilst searching her personal effects I found a small bible and pressed in centre fold was a Dandielion.