Wilko Weed Killer

 

While you could get Mattress Toppers upstairs at Wilko's with pretty photos of dandelions on the packaging, you could also get weedkiller downstairs to wipe them out from your garden path (see previous post).

The dandelion is almost exclusively used to represent all 'weeds' on weed killer products. Some people think that dandelions should be eradicated from their lawns and paths, and will use chemicals again and again to kill them off. 

What's so 'bad' about the dandelion? The dandelion is vital as an early source of nectar and pollen for insects, they are incredibly beautiful in both their flower and seed head stage, and pretty much every part of the dandelion is edible.... but they are common, resilient, persistent and perennial. Is that the problem? Be proud the dandelion has taken root in your lawn! You are helping pollinators by leaving them where they are.

Mattress Topper Dandelion

Dandelion seed heads are often used on the packaging of items - pleasing images used to prompt you to buy. 

I'm not entirely sure the connection between dandelions and mattress toppers... fluffy? Anyway, I saw this in Wilko's (how I miss that shop).

Model Dandelions

Who'd have thought you can buy tiny model dandelions for your train set!? 

This pack of 30 dandelions are made by German company Busch - and you put them together yourself (which I've not done yet - I might keep them in the original pack maybe). They must be the smallest dandelions in the Archive. 

Dandelion flavoured worms!

I have a a few food items in the Dandelion Archive: tea, coffee, wine and syrup, but these are the first dandelion flavoured worms! I got them the other week from someone I know who makes lots of sweets and drinks from foraged wild plants. According to the ingredients they are made with dandelion florets. I've tried a few (obviously) and they taste really lovely. And I have saved a few for the archive too.

Helen Thomas Dandelions

There's a new exhibition of beautiful paintings by Helen Thomas opening next month at Wakefield Cathedral. Dandelions and Double Yellows runs from 10 July - 15 August 2021.

She's also asking for submissions for an online gallery of pavement plants. There's more details and information on how to send your photos on Helen's website (the final deadline for submissions is 23 July 2021).

I'm in Wakefield in July and plan to go and visit the show. I can't wait to see Helen's work: weeds & dandelions are right up my (overgrown) street.

Image: Helen Thomas

A to Z of TV Gardening

My mum tipped me off that there is currently a re-run of the BBC series 'A to Z of TV Gardening'. 

Presented by Carol Kirkwood* it's a programme made up of archive clips previously shown on the BBC - so it's a repeat of the repeats. 

31 minutes into the programme there's a feature on dandelions showing footage from Countryfile in 2008 where presenter Ben Fogle visits Paul Richards who grows dandelions as a crop for 'the alternative therapy market'. He then interviews Dominic Price from Plantlife International, who explains the complexity of the dandelion; and he finishes with interviewing Debs Cook from the Herbal Society in her charming kitchen for a 'gourmet dandelion masterclass in soup'. They add leaves to the soup and there's also a salad with both leaves and flower petals in. Ben sips Dandelion and Burdock, confessing how he doesn't remember it as a child (I bet the pop man never visited posh Ben's house), and she shows him coffee made from dandelion roots. 

Here's a link to the programme - it's on the BBC i-player for another 26 days:

A to Z of TV Gardening. Series 4: Letter D

*Carol introduces the dandelion segment holding up what she thinks is a dandelion, but quite clearly it isn't! Looks more like a Hawkbit / Catsear type of flower. 

Dandelions on The Chase

Dandelions made it to The Chase quiz show last night. I don't especially watch it, so it's a fluke that I saw it. 

The question: What part of a dandelion can be roasted and used as a substitute for coffee?

A: The root 

B: The stem 

C: The petals

The contestant got it right (the answer is A: the root). However, the Chaser got it wrong! Ha.

Covid19 Dandelion

I've found an instance where an image of a dandelion is being used in connection to Covid-19.

I was looking up travel restrictions and rules etc for travelling in Europe and as I was checking details on the Belgium government website I noticed their use of a dandelion image on the Coronavirus news page. 

I'm still trying to work it out what the connection is between Covid-19 and dandelions.

Eire Dandelion (in the background) Postage Stamp

Dandelions are often not the main focus of an artwork and instead they are in the background. It is quite hard to search for items with dandelions as they are not listed in the description of the object. The result is hours of internet trawling - an addiction trying to hunt them out.
Here is an example of this: a postage stamp from Eire (Ireland) issued in 1994 showing a  gorgeous Garden Tiger Moth - on a Dandelion.  It doesn't seem easy to find the artist's name, but one source has listed the illustrater as I Loe. I can't find confirmation of this, plus I can't find much information on I Loe either... sorry about that.
The stamp, from a series of four showing different moths, is now safely in the Dandelion Archive.

Dandelion fields

We are currently in a semi lockdown here because of the coronavirus pandemic (I say 'semi' because we are allowed to go out for exercise, shopping, getting medical prescriptions and, it would seem by the amount of traffic on the roads, pretty much anything else too). 
So, for the last 6 weeks I have only been able to walk locally for my daily exercise. Although I only have a tiny back yard I'm lucky where I live as it's situated on the edge of the city, near a river and where there are a good number of walks where you don't see too many other people.
Yesterday evening we went for a walk in the fields at the back of the house. The birds were beginning their evening song and the smell of the new hawthorn blossom was warm and strong. And the best sight of all was a field of dandelions looking so beautiful in the soft evening light, the many seed heads aglow in the sunshine. An uplifting sight in these times of isolation and uncertainty. 

Dandelionfest on Wildflower Hour

It's #Dandelionfest this week on Wildflowerhour on Sunday 19th April 2020
Go to @wildflower_hour on Twitter to post your photos of dandelions and if you need help to identify some of the micro species.
Great idea!

Dandelion Jumpsuit

I know i've not updated the Dandelion Blog in ages, but it doesn't mean i'm not still collecting information about them or items for the archive, i've just been incredibly busy.
So, i'm going to try and make more of an effort to do more blog posts this year... starting with a snapshot I took last year in a NY gallery of a woman in a jumpsuit with a rather gorgeous dandelion design all over it. Fabulous darling!

Ruskin: Museum of the Near Future

One of my screen prints of dandelion leaves is on show in a very beautiful exhibition:

Ruskin: Museum of the Near Future is on show at the Ruskin Library, Museum and Research Centre based at Lancaster University. The exhibition runs until 25 November 2019 and is open to the public every week day 10am - 4pm.

I'm delighted my print, A Week of Dandelions, is included - it's displayed on a wall in the gallery surrounded by drawings and sketches by John Ruskin (1819 - 1900). The Ruskin Museum, based in Coniston, describes Ruskin as 

"Artist, critic, pundit on aesthetics and ethics, thinker, seer, this social revolutionary challenged the moral foundations of Victorian Britain."

Ruskin Library website

Bernard Leach Dandelion

I have work in an exhibition in Cornwall at the moment and while visiting last month I went to the Leach Pottery in St Ives. It's a really wonderful museum, studio and gallery and i've always wanted to visit.
On our way out of the museum, in the porch on the floor are two tiles decorated by Leach with dandelions! It was my friend who pointed them out, i would have missed them otherwise. The woman working in the shop cleaned them up for me so I could take photos. Here is one of the tiles - how beautiful it is.
https://www.leachpottery.com

Dandelion Tea and Coffee

Here are some more objects from my Dandelion Archive in the exhibition Dandelions: Rustic Oracles at the Harris Museum, Art Gallery & Library in Preston.
Shown here are examples of dandelion tea and coffee and also a beautiful cup and saucer from Russia that have been placed in the display about Teetotallism. 
Teetotalism was first started in Preston and is the practice of total abstinence from alcohol. There is a display dedicated to the movement in the Harris Museum, so the dandelion tea, coffee and cup & saucer seemed to fit quite well.
The exhibition runs until 7th October 2018.