When do dandelions grow

The dandelions are running a couple of weeks behind normal but they are starting to show. If you did not get your yard sprayed last fall the dandelions will be with you the next month or so. These plants will continue to develop flowers. They thrive on cool damp weather. Dandelion is a perennial that can produce multiple flowers.

With a large plant more than 50 flowers have been found to be produced with several seeds per flower. New foliage grows up over the old foliage. The new rosette looks like tips of leaves with a flower bud in the middle. Leaves will elongate and the flower will start to open — that first flower is often very close to ground. However, flower stalks can reach up to two feet high. In the terrifying New World, the cheerful face of the dandelion was a sweet reminder of home.

In Japan for instance, whole horticultural societies formed to enjoy the beauty of dandelions and to develop exciting new varieties for gardeners. Dandelions are a green and growing first aid kit. The use of dandelions in the healing arts goes so far back that tracing its history is like trying to catch a dandelion seed as it floats over the grass.

In olden times, dandelions were also prescribed for every ailment, from warts to the plague. To this day, herbalists hail the dandelion as the perfect plant medicine: It is a gentle diuretic that provides nutrients and helps the digestive system function at peak efficiency. Dandelions are more nutritious than most of the vegetables in your garden.

They were named after lions because their lion-toothed leaves healed so many ailments, great and small: baldness, dandruff, toothache, sores, fevers, rotting gums, weakness, lethargy and depression. In eras when vitamin pills were unknown, vitamin deficiencies killed millions.

Data from the U. Department of Agriculture reveal how dandelions probably helped alleviate many ailments: They have more vitamin A than spinach, more vitamin C than tomatoes, and are a powerhouse of iron, calcium and potassium. Dandelions are good for your lawn. Their wide-spreading roots loosen hard-packed soil, aerate the earth and help reduce erosion. The deep taproot pulls nutrients such as calcium from deep in the soil and makes them available to other plants. Dandelions are masters of survival.

Individual plants can grow for years and reach a considerable size, up to 50 cm across. Just check out the ones behind your neighbour's garage! Did you know you can make wine out of Dandelions? There are lots of recipes for making Dandelion wine on-line. Or that the young leaves go great in salads? In fact, the family of plants that the Dandelion belongs to also includes lettuce!

If you let a lettuce plant go to flower in your garden you'll see what I mean. And the roots of dandelions can serve as a coffee substitute when baked and ground. Hint: if you are a real coffee aficionado, don't try this. Hey, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade, or in this case if you have a yard full of Dandelions eat'em and drink'em.

Apparently, you can make green and yellow dyes from the flowers, too. The root of Dandelion is said to be diuretic makes you pee. Some of its other common names suggest this quality: Pee-a-bed and Wet-a-bed. It is also reported to be a mild laxative, and the milky latex has been used as mosquito repellent. As always, use caution when using any plant for medicinal purposes. Read up on their properties and possible interactions with drugs or other medications.

As anyone with a lawn knows, Dandelions are prodigious plants, producing copious amounts of seeds which blow into your yard from your neighbours' yards. You know, the lazy guy on one side who won't bother with his yard and the nature-nut on the other side who thinks Dandelions are "cool".

Why can't everybody be like you. If you're bent on getting rid of Dandelions in your lawn, here's a few tips:. If you really hate "the environment" then go ahead and use chemicals to control Dandelions, just do it properly! Weed killers containing 2,4-D work well on Dandelions. But the best time to use them is in the fall when the plants are transferring resources into their roots in preparation for winter.