Dandelions

Wednesday Flower Study ~ Dandelions

"Professor Bailey once said that dandelions in his lawn were a great trouble to him until he learned to love them, and then the sight of them gave him keenest pleasure." (Handbook of Nature Study, pg.531)

I certainly felt the same way yesterday when I poked my head out the back door and immediately caught sight of these sunny heads! Yesterday was a bright, sunny, and windy day, and today is cloudy and rainy-- What a cheerful welcome to Spring the dandelion gives us!!

"The edges of the leaf are notched in a peculiar way, so that the lobes were, by some one, supposed to look like lions' teeth in profile; thus the plant was called in France 'dents-de-lion' (teeth of the lion), and we have made from this the name dandelion." (Handbook of Nature Study, pg. 532)

"The hollow stalk of the blossom-head from time immemorial has been a joy to children. I may be made into a trombone, which will give to the enterprising teacher an opportunity for a lesson in the physics of sound, since by varying the length the pitch is varied." (Handbook of Nature Study, pg. 532)

Well, we decided to give this a try, and after picking some flowers, we plucked off the heads, but we didn't get any sounds when we blew into one end. I guess there must be more to making them a trombone than I imagined.
When I said they tasted weird, my son said it was because of the white stuff coming out of the end. I told him its called milk, and he asked, "Is this like the milk we drink?" Yuck, the idea of dandelion milk makes me shudder!! Here is a poem I found about Dandelion Milk.

Just this morning I was reading Happy Birthday Kit out loud to the kids, which is a story of a 9 year old girl during the Great Depression, and they became so excited to hear about the main character collecting dandelion greens for salad.Nyah's Notebook Page

Austin's Notebook Page (he didn't want to color today)

Yesterday the kids helped me plant some Caladium tubers in these tubs so they will be ready to plant in the yard in a few weeks.

And we checked on our other flowers in the front-- getting taller!!