Nearly all people that work hard in their yards will tell you that, without a doubt, dandelions are weeds and they have no business making a home in their lawns and gardens. But, no matter how hard we try to kill them organically, manually or chemically those pesky suckers just keep coming back.
However, not everyone considers the dandelion to be a weed. To the under 10 crowd, in fact, the dandelion is a flower – and a very beautiful one. When my 4-year-old daughter sees a dandelion, her face lights up like a Christmas tree. She’ll run across rugged terrain and boys holding Nerf guns just to pick one.
To this age group, it does not matter if the dandelion is in full bloom in all its yellow glory or if it is white as snow bursting with seeds. It just begs to be picked. They must hold it in their hands, give it away to moms, grandmothers and teachers or – best of all –blow it into the wind.
And, it’s because every toddler, preschooler and elementary school kid in America must blow the dandelion seeds into the wind that we will always have little yellow flowers growing freely amongst our beloved grass. I don’t care if you use Scott’s, Ortho or the mother-of-all herbicides -- the dandelion is not going away any time soon.
The gardener in me dislikes the dandelion. But, I have to confess that it does have the tendency to win me over at times. Today, I received a handful of dandelions from my kids when we picnicked outside. As they ran around and picked every flower they could find, they proudly placed them into my hands. They gave them to me as if they were giving me buried treasure. I cherish these moments and, because of this, the dandelion will always hold a special place in my heart -- even if it is a weed.
However, not everyone considers the dandelion to be a weed. To the under 10 crowd, in fact, the dandelion is a flower – and a very beautiful one. When my 4-year-old daughter sees a dandelion, her face lights up like a Christmas tree. She’ll run across rugged terrain and boys holding Nerf guns just to pick one.
To this age group, it does not matter if the dandelion is in full bloom in all its yellow glory or if it is white as snow bursting with seeds. It just begs to be picked. They must hold it in their hands, give it away to moms, grandmothers and teachers or – best of all –blow it into the wind.
And, it’s because every toddler, preschooler and elementary school kid in America must blow the dandelion seeds into the wind that we will always have little yellow flowers growing freely amongst our beloved grass. I don’t care if you use Scott’s, Ortho or the mother-of-all herbicides -- the dandelion is not going away any time soon.
The gardener in me dislikes the dandelion. But, I have to confess that it does have the tendency to win me over at times. Today, I received a handful of dandelions from my kids when we picnicked outside. As they ran around and picked every flower they could find, they proudly placed them into my hands. They gave them to me as if they were giving me buried treasure. I cherish these moments and, because of this, the dandelion will always hold a special place in my heart -- even if it is a weed.
Update:
This morning while driving to preschool my daughter was looking out of the car window from the back seat. Out of the blue she said, "Mom...I love dandelions."
I had to chuckle to myself because I had just written this post. Then I said to her, "Really? Why do you love dandelions?" Her response? "I love to blow the seeds."
All I could say to myself was, "I rest my case."
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