This week’s bouquet is ever so simple. As simple as childhood used to be. This may look like a lovely chrysanthemum, but it is the humble dandelion of our youth.
Remember when we picked them as a surprise for our Mothers? Remember when we made linked chains from their stems? Remember when we blew the seeds into the wind, fascinated as only a child can be?
Now they are a weed, and a pest to most home owners as they invade our yards. But the bees love them and the dandelion flow produces a very particular and delicious honey.
I paired the dandelion with another small wildflower growing in my lawn. I have no idea what it is, but it’s tiny daisy-like flower is precious.
It usually goes unnoticed as it springs up and flowers just as the grass needs its first cutting. So like the dandelion, it is run over with the mower, not to appear again until next spring.
Although we consider the dandelion a weed, it is really a wildflower. And as most wildflowers, it does not actually hold up very well in a bouquet. It will close at night, and may, or may not reopen in the morning.
Sweetness comes in many forms, so grab it where and when you can.
Making a bouquet doesn’t require a large garden full of flowers . . . only eyes to see what is around you.
Linking with Cathy of Rambling in the Garden for “In a Vase on Monday”, where you can view other bouquets from all over the world.
great writing!
p.s. the flower jars are pretty too! 😉
Thank you kindly. I love collecting pretty little jars to put flowers in. Have a happy week.
Lovely, Cindy! A friend calls flowering weeds in the grass ‘lawn jewels.’ I love mine and won’t mow them until they are done blooming regardless of ‘what the neighbors think.’ 😉
Thank you Eliza! That is such a sweet way to think of them. I know my neighbors who treat their lawns probably hate all my dandelion seeds blowing over into their yards, but I don’t care. I leave them for the bees who love them. And they really are pretty and full of wonderful fond childhood memories. Whoever hasn’t picked or been given a bouquet of dandelions by a child has missed a sweet treat of life.
Strong lesson here and beautiful display.
Thank you kindly. I’m trying to notice everything around me and appreciate all of God’s beauty and creation.
Your next-to-last ohoto is wonderful – who would think from that that these blooms are just humble ‘weeds’? It’s delightful!
Thank you Cathy. They are sweet little things that go unnoticed most years. I’m trying to see things with my childhood eyes, where everything is a wonder.
You’re so right! I love all plants, even the ones that most would consider pesky weeds, and dandelions are so cheerful! The little yellow flowers are very pretty too, I wonder what they are!
I tried and tried to find out what it is, but could not match anything to it online. It is very sweet though and grows in my front lawn for a short time in spring.
Wonderful! Who gets to say what’s a weed anyway? Years and years ago (okay, decades), my stepfather hand-stitched a picture for me, featuring children with the following poem underneath:
Once in a golden hour, I cast to earth a seed
Up there grew a flower, the people said a weed.
The poem is by Tennyson. I still have the piece, currently hanging in my kitchen.
What a lovely poem and special picture, and memories. What a treasure to have and words much worth remembering. Thanks for sharing – I’d never heard that before. Happy Tuesday!
I do agree – the simplest of flowers (weeds?) can be just as pleasing as garden treasures. 🙂 They look lovely in vase. You reminded me of when I was a child and once picked a bunch of buttercups for my Mum. She was mad with me saying she had enough of ‘those weeds’ in her garden!
I don’t think there is anything more precious than when your child walks in and gives you a bouquet of sweet flowers they so proudly picked themselves, even if they are weeds.
I love this post so much– sweet and made smile because I love dandelions. We have a patch of soil in our backyard that divides out land from the neighbors and we let it go to the dandelions. There is something that just reminds me of being a child.
They do so bring back childhood memories of when life was still pure, innocent, and sweet. A place I wish I could frequent more often, where the sweetness of life reigns.
Lovely, believe it or not, I live too far south for Dandelions. My favorite quote “It is a weed or a thousand wishes” I like the wishes part.
I never knew dandelions don’t grow in the South. That is amazing. I always thought of them as everyone’s most common spring weed.
It’s been a fabulous year for dandelions here too and I love them! Very happy to see them in your vase 🙂 It’s strange (or sad rather) how we call one thing a weed and another a beauty. The bees surely were in heaven this year. We love eating the leaves in salad, delicious. Happy June days!
My Mother used to make a dandelion salad, that as kids we hated. I remember them being rather bitter. Haven’t tried them again as an adult, but around here you never know if a dog has peed on them. That is usually a deterrent.