“If dandelions were hard to grow, they would be most welcome on any lawn.”
– Andrew Mason
Like Dante, my mother had her own idea of what Hell is like. Dante, being from a place in Italy that was very hot, thought Hell would be very cold. My mother often said Hell is full of dust. The damned will have to dust all day only to find out the next morning that everything is covered in dust and it is mandatory to start all over again. Kind of like here on earth.
During the pandemic, I have dusted things that have never before been dusted. You will recall that I have said many times that I am not domestic. There was a lot of dust to be dusted in my house. I have taken pictures off the wall and dusted behind the frames, wiped dust from leaves of plants including taking a soft brush to African violet leaves and dusted the tops of medicine cabinets which required standing on a chair. I sneezed so much, my family thought I had the corona virus. Thank God, they were wrong.
Dusting is not my Hell, however, since I rarely do it. My Hell is populated with little yellow flowers called dandelions. Each Spring, I cringe as I drive around the neighborhood. Dandelions were called lion’s tooth in England before the sixteenth century. The French name for this common European weed was dent de lion. The English decided to spell this the way it sounded. The name refers to the deeply indented leaf, not the flower.
My Mom used to have me dust and my dad used to have me dig dandelions as a kid. I have no compulsion to dust under normal circumstances, but to this day, I wage war every Spring against dandelions. To me, there is nothing dandy about dandelions. I think of them as deadly trespassers. I recently learned that the common yellow dandelion comes from Europe and they do not support native bees. While most women get jewelry for Mother’s Day, my husband, a few years ago, got me a new dandelion digger and I was thrilled. I can honestly say, I have almost eradicated the dandelions from my front lawn.
My husband and I used to go to car shows in his ’37 Hudson. These shows were usually in some field in the middle of nowhere. I would get sick on the way there looking at all the blankets of yellow on the farm lands.
Not everyone hates dandelions. My best friend, who used to live in a Victorian farm house with lots of land and lots of dandelions, likes dandelions. I respect that and I have posted a sign in my yard stating: “Dear bees, to find dandelion flowers, please fly to: and gave her address. I have posted another sign on my property line reminding my neighbors dandelions to practice social distancing and stay where they are or better yet go back to Europe where they came from.
Dandelions are edible and have many culinary uses including be made into wine. I have invited my Italian neighbor to my yard to dig the dandelions and make wine, but she has failed to come. High in vitamins, the leaves can be used in salads and the taproot can be ground into a coffee substitute. Yuck! I have never tried this and probably never will.
The one good thing about dandelions for me is that the VA many years ago, had a contest to name their day care. I suggested Dandelion Day Care and a picture of a dandy (happy) lion. I won a $100 bond.
While digging up dandelions, I often think that maybe we should consider them prized flowers and roses weeds. After all, dandelions are easy to grow and roses are not.
