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Dandelions. I kinda like them…

March 20, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner 17 Comments

DandelionsWho decided dandelions were weeds? 

American poet Ella Wilcox said a weed is but an unloved flower.  This is so true.

Dandelions have popped up throughout our neighborhood, bright buttons of yellow growing in clumps near fences and sidewalks. I kinda like dandelions. To me, they are one of the first signs of Spring.

Dandelion

My sister and I couldn’t wait to be big enough to mow the yard. Once the day finally came, that John Deere riding mower became ours until we left for college. Of course the excitement quickly wore off as the summer sun baked our vast yard. The grass grew fast, probably because it was mostly weeds—dandelions, henbit and those pale pink flowers that look like lacy cups. Sometimes we left patches of dandelions in the side yard because they were so pretty. Daddy didn’t much like that…

If you look closely, dandelions are not that different from mums. Or asters. Or daisies. Only easier to grow…

Why not celebrate the hardy dandelion? Instead we make things difficult, wrestling with prissy flowers that may or may not survive.

dandelion

The happy go lucky dandelion asks for nothing except to be left alone to grow and spread. If we pay attention, they will even predict the weather—open and fluffy during a stretch of sunny days but shut tight when rain is coming. With leaves that can be used for tea and salad and wine, the dandelion is useful too.

But the very best part…

When the time is right, the flower head transforms into a light white feathery globe, a parachute ready to spread tiny seeds across the land. What other flower miraculously transforms a roadside or abandoned lot or ditch bank into a thousand wishes?

dandelion blowball

One Thousand Wishes
(morgueFile)

Grace Grits and Gardening

“When life is not coming up roses
Look to the weeds
and find the beauty hidden within them.”
― L.F.Young

dandelion

The Unloved

September 13, 2012 By Talya Tate Boerner 14 Comments

I am cultivating the largest Johnsongrass I’ve ever seen. It sprouted up in our Fayetteville flower bed between visits and is so impressive I feel compelled to watch it grow. It wants to live.
It’s my personal 4-H project. I wonder if I could enter it in the State Fair of Arkansas? 
Daddy would be mortified. Thomas Tate had some of the cleanest fields in Mississippi County. Driving anywhere with him meant factoring in lots of extra time. Like all great farmers, he drove slow enough to watch cotton bolls open from the highway. And he stopped unannounced to chop the errant Johnsongrass growing mid-field.  On our way to anywhere, like playing a game of I Spy, we scanned the fields looking for offensive weeds standing taller than the crops, a slightly different shade of green, showing off, teasing Daddy, testing him. He stopped the truck, grabbed his trusty hoe from the back, walked to the annoying thing and whacked it down.  No matter how muddy the field. No matter where we were going. To a basketball game or wedding or funeral… 
We patiently sat inside the musty truck watching and waiting. We had no Iphone entertainment. No Angry Birds to pass the time. Just conversation and maybe a Barbie in tow.
Growing up that way, I am naturally drawn to weeding pulling and flower deadheading. Even at a friend’s house or restaurant, I can barely restrain myself. I’m surprised that I drove back to Dallas and left that mammoth Johnsongrass free to grow in Fayetteville. A weed is but an unloved flower.

talya

Musical Pairings:

Song Sung Blue – Neil Diamond

A weed is but an unloved flower. – Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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Hi! I'm Talya Tate Boerner. Writer, Reader, Arkansas Master Naturalist / Master Gardener, Author of

THE ACCIDENTAL SALVATION OF GRACIE LEE (2016)

GENE, EVERYWHERE: a life-changing visit from my father-in-law (2020)

BERNICE RUNS AWAY (Now Available!)

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