Lunch break

There's wildflowers and there's weeds. I think our garden is a wonderful mix of wildflowers including


bluebells...



and bleeding hearts.

There some plants that are just annoying but which are beautiful despite their nuisance factor.

bracken which spreads slowly but surely...


the quince japonica which sends little treelets up everywhere in the surrounding garden...



And, then, there's the buttercup. Every spring, we spend hours uprooting these persistent plants. Unlike the glorious (and well-behaved) dandelion, the buttercup is like an infiltrating army. Leave one and before you know it there's a hundred. If they didn't choke things out, I wouldn't be so determined. But look at our poor parsley which managed to survive the winter. I have to dig up the good and the bad then replant. It's the only way.

Sunday Wonder

D is for dandelion.

Other flowers may be beautiful, colorful, interesting or, even, incredible for their unique design but not one can compete with the dandelion for my affection. My son knows I like them so much that I received my first spring dandelions this year in a photo. I almost didn't find any around our neighborhood to take some photos for this post. But, I went on my own lion hunt and found a few in a field under the power lines.



This love affair began when I was a small child and the dandelion was the only flower that I was allowed to pick. My mother had many a bouquet of dandelions presented to her during my summers. When I was six, I remember my friend Bev and I creating a wonderful mud cake elaborately decorated with dandelion heads and loose petals. We offered it to our little brothers whom we believed would be gullible enough to eat it. They weren't.



The dandelion, humble in its ubiquity, is the king of the plant world to me. It's fuzzy bright flower shines like the summer sun. It always makes me smile. This glorious 'weed' is a great gift, demanding nothing at all and giving so much.

A dandelion will grow almost anywhere - in abundance. Dandelion flowers will make a delicious wine. The leaves are used in herbal medicines and as a fresh spring green in salads. The stems were a source of fascination for me as a child, as well. I enjoyed making chains with the hollow stems. I didn't enjoy the brown stains on my hands from the sap in the stems. And, having experimented once, I really disliked the bitter taste of that white juice which got on my lips when I tried to turn the stem into a whistle.



They grow strong and healthy - I've never seen a spindly dandelion. They have deep tenacious roots and the strength to push up through the pavement. Dandelions are what the plant books call a vigorous seeder. But again, this seeding business is done with style and fun. Kids, big and small, can help to spread the splendor of the dandelion.



And I know that the name is a corruption of the French for 'lion's teeth' but I prefer it to mean 'dandy lion'. It is such a cheeky, showy wildflower.

Joy!

This morning I walked outside and there was spring. The garden has rebounded from the ice and snow. I couldn't resist taking some photos of the strong crocuses which force their shoots up through the tough old rhododendron leaves.

And the beautiful snowdrops which don't last very long. Our colony is slowly growing. It's not quite a drift in its space but, definitely,is starting a trend.

I was also very glad to see that our beautiful white clematis survived the winter in its container. There are two nice strong buds growing on otherwise dead-looking branches.

My daughter informed me that a garden with lots of dandelions indicates good soil. Well, we don't have many dandelions and I thought it was because we routed them out quite quickly. (This despite the fact that they are probably my all-time favorite flower.) We do have, even this early, a whole ton of buttercups which prosper in our soil. I wonder what that indicates?

The garden work calls...it's very loud today.