plants | Dragons Rule OK. V.M.Sang (author)

Some people will refer to these plants as weeds. But what is a weed? Grass growing on your lawn is not a weed, but if it grows between your beloved flowers in the flowerbed, then it is.

In the above case, the grass is growing where you don’t want it, hence it’s a weed. So a weed is any plant growing where it’s not wanted.

I have, in the past, bought plants from garden centres and put them in my garden. Sometimes I regretted it as they wanted to take over the whole garden, even though they might be pretty. They have become weeds.

A weed is a plant growing in the wrong place.

So here are a few wild flowers, not growing in the wrong place!

The first of these is one that is often disparaged, and called a weed wherever it grows. That’s the Dandelion.

These plants are so-called from the French, ‘dent-de-lion’, meaning ‘lion’s tooth’. If you look at the leaves, you can see how this name came about. However, the French call it ‘piss-en-lit’ or ‘wee the bed.’

When I was growing up, we told each other not to pick dandelions or we’d wet the bed. There is a miniscule truth in this as the sap of the plant has diuretic properties.

I also believe that the leaves make a spicy addition to a salad, but I’ve never tried it myself.

When we were growing up, we used to call the seed heads ‘Dandelion clocks’. We blew the seeds of, counting ‘one o’clock, two o’clock etc’ until all the seeds were gone. then that was the time. We never really believed it, but it was a fun thing to do. And it helped spread the dandelion seeds.

Personally I like dandelions. They are lovely flowers, and make a bright carpet in the springtime on roadside banks.

Here is a picture of a field of dandelions in Parthenay, France, just outside the walls.

I have a vague memory of being told that during WW2, people used to make coffee from the long tap roots. It would certainly be caffeine free! Anyone who has ever tried to dig up a dandelion can testify to those roots!

Dandelions, though, have a high propensity for absorbing things around them, that includes weedkillers and pesticides, as well as heavy metals such as lead, so it is as well not to eat them from anywhere near roads, or places where herbicides and pesticides can be absorbed.

Wikipedia tells me that dandelion flowers were used to make a pale yellow dye, and the inner ribs of the leaves made a purple one.

They can self-pollinate, which is useful for them as they flower early, so they can pollinate themselves before insects are around, but their bright yellow flowers attract bees as soon as they emerge in the spring. Be careful of using herbicides on them, though, as it can harm or kill the pollinating insects.

And, of course, the Rolling Stones made a song about this flower. Here’s a link to YouTube so you can listen to it.

click here to listen

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Last September I had a holiday in South Wales. It was one that had been cancelled during lockdown, but now we could go on holiday once more.

The weather was fantastic, and two things pleased us. The first was that a leg of the Tour of Britain (cycling) was starting from the local town. The second was that The National Botanical Gardens of Wales was just down the road.

These gardens are in the Towy valley in Carmarthenshire. They were opened in 2000 on the site of a mansion belonging to a family called Middleton. They built their mansion here in the early 17th century. It was bought in 1789 by Sir William Paxton, who had the idea of turning it into a water park.

There is a lot of history to this place, and you can find out more on Wikipedia, by following this link. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Botanic_Garden_of_Wales

We visited these gardens twice, and I thought I would share some of the pictures I took with you.

Here they are.

The Dome was divided into areas representing different parts of the world.

I don’t know what this plant is, but it’s interesting.

This was the apothecary’s hall with an interesting apothecary’s garden behind.

I was intrigued by this poem. Sadly, I didn’t take any photos of the garden behind the hall.

In the tropical house there were many plants in flower. Here are some of them.

And finally, not from Wales, but my garden. It’s a pity I can’t post the scent of the daphne bush. It’s wonderful. This was last year, and it’s even better this year.

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Maria and Tom have bought an antique table for the old cottage they have bought. When they hear strange noises in the night that sound like crying, they worry their house is haunted, but the sounds seem to come from the table.

They set about trying to find what is causing the disturbances. The answer is stranger than either of them had thought.

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If you would like to receive an exclusive, free short story by me, called The Haunted Table, simply click the link. This will take you to the page where you can download it.