dandelion clocks

We’ve decided to leave more areas of uncut grass in the garden this year, to encourage wild plants and flowers, and provide a food source for pollinating insects. We’re already seeing a wide range of species, including clover, speedwell, buttercups, herb robert, and, as you can see in the photo, dandelions.

The flowers are rather bright and brash, but I think the seed heads are things of beauty; delicate, fragile and ethereal.

When I was a child, we used to blow the individual seeds from the seed head (to the dismay of local gardeners, no doubt), and you were supposed to be able to tell the time from how many puffs it took. Hence dandelion clocks. I’ve only recently become aware of the idea of blowing the seeds and making a wish. I don’t know whether that’s a piece of modern folklore, or maybe just something that wasn’t local to…

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