Yea for you Pippa! I also Love Dandelions! They are just so bright and cheerful. I feel happier just looking at them. And there is nothing like the joy on a child's face when they are picking and giving dandelions. There are also some wonderful dandelion folktales.
Hi Pippa,we live in the Chelmsford area in Essex. This morning my wife and I had a walkabout in the garden (about 7:30 am) and found one of our plants was being completely devoured by a kind of caterpillar we've never seen before. I really need to send you a picture but am unsure how to do so using this web site. Unfortunately neither my wife or myself can tell you the name of the plant that the catepillars were feeding on (given to us by an aunt two years ago) but they(the catepillars) were prolific! About an inch in lenth and completely light grey in colour. Probably quite common but unbeknownst to us! If you could give me an 'e' address I could send a picture. Hope you can advise. Apologies due to the fact that this isn't about dandelions etc, I'm just not sure how to get in touch with you people!
I was told a story about a meeting of Horticulturests. They were shown a picture of a very rare yellow flower just discovered and everyone thought it the most beautiful flower ever discovered. They were then told it was the common dandelion, just shows you a weed is just a flower in the wrong place. Good on you Pippa for not getting rid of the most beautiful and useful flower. I too have fond memories of blowing the seeds they may even be the ones in your garden.
Pippa, I thought I'd opened up a proverbial can of worms when I mentioned that some weeds might be considered wildlife in my blog and now I'll expect to see hoards of comments posted under your piece. We harvest the leaves for our budgies who can't get enough of them. My three-year-old loves dandelions when they have gone to seed and has coined a name especially for them - blowflowers.
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I also Love Dandelions!
They are just so bright and cheerful.
I feel happier just looking at them.
And there is nothing like the joy on a child's face when they are picking and giving dandelions.
There are also some wonderful dandelion folktales.