Love your Dandelions!

admin
, 22 April 2025
Love your Dandelions!
Dandelions © Tessa Shilling

Whilst looking at any gaps in your garden, a space for a bit of spring colour, can we draw you attention to what we think is a must-have plant? 

It's a real herald of spring, its bright yellow flowers already open, we are now getting the clock heads. In contrast to the ubiquitous Daffodil trumpets, each bloom is actually composed of dozens of tiny florets, arranged in a flat whorl, attractive to pollinating insects, including bumblebees, butterflies and pollen beetles.

Each plant will throw up many flowers, each on a short, leafless stem, which does not flop or bend in spring winds. Careful deadheading can prolong the flowering season further. These marvellous plants generally flower in spring and early summer, but have been known to bloom at almost any time of the year.

They are the hardiest of perennials, and will thrive in most conditions. Their neat rosette of leaves takes up little space at the front of the border and they can naturalise in lawns or a meadow successfully.

You can even add the young leaves and petals to a salad. Traditionally the flowers were used to make a wine and its renowned diuretic properties are reflected in various colloquial names - 'wet the bed' being the most polite.

However this horticultural wonder is not readily available in garden centres, perhaps due in part to the oversight of Alan Titchmarsh et al.

Perhaps Sussex Wildlife Trust members can help promote this unfairly ignored garden plant, which has so much to offer. May we offer you the splendid Taraxacum officinale, although you may know it by its common name - the Dandelion!

If you already have specimens in your garden, why not look closely at the beauty of the flower, cherish their hardiness and allow them to flower to benefit the bees, before deadheading?

Leave a comment
Time Δ Debug Message - Perch Runway 3.2
1782591015.84390 [906] SELECT p.pagePath, pr.routePattern, pr.routeRegExp, p.pageTemplate, pr.routeOrder, s.settingValue AS siteOffline FROM swt_pages_staging p LEFT JOIN swt_page_routes pr ON p.pageID=pr.pageID LEFT JOIN swt_settings s ON s.settingID='siteOffline' UNION SELECT NULL AS pagePath, pr2.routePattern, pr2.routeRegExp, pr2.templatePath AS pageTemplate, pr2.routeOrder, NULL AS siteOffline FROM swt_page_routes pr2 WHERE templateID!=0 ORDER BY routeOrder ASC, pagePath ASC
1782591015.89610.0522Matched route: news/[slug:s]
1782591015.89630.0002Server address: 216.73.216.31
1782591015.89630.0001Using master page: /templates/pages/blog/post.php
1782591015.89630Page arguments: 
Array
(
    [0] => /news/love-your-dandelions
    [s] => love-your-dandelions
    [1] => love-your-dandelions
)
1782591015.89660.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782591015.89770.0011 [86] SELECT DISTINCT settingID, settingValue FROM swt_settings WHERE userID=0
1782591015.89970.002 [1] SELECT locationID FROM swt_shop_tax_locations WHERE locationIsHome=1 LIMIT 1
1782591015.90040.0006INSERT INTO swt_shop_cart(memberID,locationID,currencyID,cartPricing,cartProperties) VALUES(NULL,'1',47,'standard','[]')
1782591015.90240.002 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22360437
1782591015.90320.0008 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22360437
1782591015.90390.0007 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_sales WHERE saleFrom<='2026-06-27 20:10:00' AND saleTo>'2026-06-27 20:10:00' AND saleActive=1 AND saleDeleted IS NULL ORDER BY saleOrder ASC
1782591015.90550.0015 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='love-your-dandelions')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-06-27 20:10:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 10
1782591015.9080.0025 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1782591015.90870.0007 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postID=3688 AND postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-06-27 20:10:00'
1782591015.90970.0009 [13] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_sections ORDER BY sectionTitle ASC
1782591015.91040.0008 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blogs ORDER BY blogTitle ASC
1782591015.91110.0007 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=51 LIMIT 1
1782591015.91190.0007Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782591015.91210.0002 [162] SELECT catID, catPath FROM swt_categories
1782591015.91320.0011 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-06-27 20:10:00' AND postSlug='love-your-dandelions'
1782591015.93430.0211Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782591015.93510.0008 [250] SELECT country, countryID FROM swt_shop_countries WHERE countryActive=1 ORDER BY country ASC
1782591015.9370.0019Using template: /templates/pages/attributes/seo.html
1782591015.93730.0003 [1] SELECT regionID, regionTemplate, regionPage, regionRev AS rev FROM swt_content_regions WHERE regionKey='Banner image' AND (regionPage='/news/post' OR regionPage='*')
1782591015.93910.0018 [nil] SELECT * FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, c.regionID, idx.pageID, c.itemJSON, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_content_index idx JOIN swt_content_items c ON idx.itemID=c.itemID AND idx.itemRev=c.itemRev AND idx.regionID=c.regionID JOIN swt_content_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev AND idx2.indexKey='_order' WHERE ((idx.regionID=104 AND idx.itemRev=0)) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev ) as tbl GROUP BY itemID, pageID, itemJSON, sortval, regionID ORDER BY sortval ASC
1782591015.94080.0017 [82] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageDepth >=0 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782591015.94410.0033 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782591015.9450.0009 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782591015.94740.0024Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template.html
1782591015.94750.0001 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782591015.94840.0009 [4] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782591015.9490.0006 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782591015.95410.0051 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782591015.95570.0017 [7] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782591015.95670.001 [9] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782591015.95940.0027 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' OR pageSortPath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782591015.96060.0012 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageHidden=0 AND pageNew=0 AND pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition
1782591015.9630.0024 [1] Using template: /templates/navigation/breadcrumbs.html
1782591015.96360.0006Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782591015.96390.0004 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='1' LIMIT 1
1782591015.96740.0035Using template: /templates/blog/author.html
1782591015.96790.0005 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='love-your-dandelions')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-06-27 20:10:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 1
1782591015.97350.0055 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1782591015.97430.0008 [1] Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782591015.9780.0037Using template: /templates/blog/comment_form.html
1782591015.97910.0011 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_comments WHERE 1=1 AND postID=3688 AND commentStatus='LIVE' ORDER BY FIELD(webmentionType, 'like', 'repost', 'comment', NULL) ASC, commentDateTime ASC
1782591016.03320.0541 [0] Using template: /templates/blog/comment.html
1782591016.03350.0003Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782591016.03390.0004 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='1' LIMIT 1
1782591016.0350.0011 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/what-we-do' OR pageSortPath='/what-we-do' LIMIT 1
1782591016.03580.0008 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-002' LIMIT 1
1782591016.03720.0013 [7] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-002%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782591016.03930.0022 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782591016.04190.0026 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782591016.0440.0021 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782591016.0450.001 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1782591016.04590.0009 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1782591016.04670.0008 [38] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782591016.04960.003 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782591016.05140.0017 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782591016.05370.0024 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782591016.05760.0038 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/visit' OR pageSortPath='/visit' LIMIT 1
1782591016.05870.0011 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-004' LIMIT 1
1782591016.05950.0008 [30] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-004%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782591016.06230.0028 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782591016.0630.0007 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782591016.06530.0023 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782591016.06820.0029 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1782591016.06910.001 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1782591016.07160.0025 [11] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782591016.08350.0119 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782591016.08460.0011 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782591016.0870.0024 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782591016.08830.0013Request time: 0.2458
1782591016.08830Process time: 0.2456
1782591016.08830Memory: 1.6217