I had this collection of dandelion varieties for a while. These were selections bred for human consumption for the foliage as a super nutritious perennial green. I kept the collection secret. My employees noticed when they started to flower and release their seeds in the greenhouse. There they spread on the weed mat wiggling their way past the best of weed barriers into the ground below and flowering like all of life was one glorious exaltation filled with immense possibilities. I love you dandelion. Yet here was the poster child of the herbicide isle in Lowes plastered all across some of the most toxic substances on earth. My frequent visits to fix or find something for my farm always surprised me. Don’t look to the left was my thinking as I walked into the store. Yet in a few minutes I will be in my greenhouse tending my dandelion collection. Don’t tell anyone. I am sure I purchased the seeds illegally. I would like to think that anyway. Like I’m some sort of bad ass of weeddom. Don’t mess with me, I have dandelions. I’m a lion too. Yet I saw only one place where they were quasi-outlawed: the northern arboreal forests of Canada and Alaska. Evidently the sides of the gravel roads have created the perfect dandelion habitat. I may visit there someday looking for the perfect dandelion. But then maybe I don’t have to go that far. I found a nice one at a rest stop coming home from my parents house once. There herbicide and mulch in a not so cared for landscape created a dense planting of dandelions. One in particular with multi-clustered flowers and foliage caught my eye and I popped it up and put it in my truck. No one noticed. Whew! I am sure I could get arrested for that. But then I have connections being in charge of dandelion weedom and everything so not to worry. When I offered them in my nursery, few if anyone purchased them. I planted them in bulk under the bald cypress. I couldn’t just throw them out. Almost immediately they were browsed by deer and rabbits. It turns out that the lower bitterness levels and the upright growth habit of the blades of cultivated varieties were also appreciated by the animals that shunned them before. Who knew? Today I don’t have my collection. It turns out that once a dandelion flowers, the root fades and breaks down eventually. You need to collect the seed and continue the cycle to help the dandelion along. The flowering is one giant expression of pure consciousness to capture wind and disperse to open soil far away. No one knows how far the seeds can travel. Children seem to know the potential as they blow them upwards into the streams of wind far above the tree tops. If we keep an open mind, maybe the seeds will land and grow into our diet as we cultivate this wonderful green. In the meantime, the bumblebees and honey bees will fill up and pack their bodies with pollen and head home telling others of their location and the great discovery of the giant yellow flower rich in nutrition and life. That is the dandelion. Everyone knows it. Just don’t look to the left when you walk in.