Why do we hate dandelions?

Ok, I know dandelions get a bit ugly in their later stages, but I was wondering today why generally we hate dandelions. The missus put me up to this.

At this time of year, not much is blooming. We're in the gap between the late winterers and the late springers. Dandelions fill that gap. All the grass verges (and my front garden) are full of fresh bright orange flowers of dandelions. The bees love it too. I was watching them on my front lawn earlier, ignoring the daisies in the lawn, the daffs in the border, and paying only a cursory glance at the tulips. The dandelions were the flowers of choice.

So I was wondering why it is that in general we're brainwashed to hate them. What do we think?

 

I'm sure ,as a child that they were called "granny wet the bed?" or something like that and if you touched it - you would wet the bed too!!
And you know what that meant : no tea or pocket money for a week.

 

I'm not too bothered by them but then again I'm not too bothered about having a perfect lawn. As long as they remain in the lawn I won't make any effort to get rid of them.

 

I don't mind them when they're yellow, but it's when they'll white that's the problem
i'm surrounded by them, arce's of them

 

Hate the fact they seed among precious plants and you just can't get them out,a tiny bit of that root left in and up they come again

 

It's because the little ******** just won't go away.
Have they got no brain. We don't want them. Why don't they take the hint.

 

Theye are good for bees and other insects so I like them but not in my garden

Next door has loads

Spruce

 

I must admit their appearance in the lawn is not welcomed. But on mass in a field they look pretty amazing.
Some fields around here you could be fooled into thinking were oil seed rape.
Truly spectacular.
I took these last year after they'd 'turned'.


Good job my OH doesn't suffer from hay fever.

 

Wonderful shots thank you. Just wouldn't want to live next door on a windy day!!

 

Great pics Mandy

Nice one Rodders

I love em, wine from the flowers, salad from the leaves(after blanching), coffee from the roots & loads of bees

 

I like dandelions in the lawn (and daisies, clover, bird's foot trefoil and other flowers). A 'perfect' green lawn is just so boring and sterile-looking compared to one where you can watch the bees and other insects buzzing around between the flowers. And then there's the large quantities of fertiliser, weedkiller and water some people think their lawn requires, despite the fact that our rivers, lakes, ponds and groundwater are already heavily polluted with nitrates and large parts of the country are facing long term water shortages (current weather notwithstanding).

I also doubt that a few dandelions in a lawn make much contribution to the number of seedlings elsewhere in the garden, since even infrequent mowing will remove a lot of the heads before seeding and most of the seeds will drop pretty close to the parent plant anyway, plus there are always seeds blowing in from elsewhere to colonise vacant ground.