Saflax - Dandelion - Taraxacum officinale - 200 seeds - The dandelion’s glory is the blowball’s story. With germ-free and air-permeable coconut fiber substrate for successful cultivation. Worth knowing: Every child knows the up to 30 cm big plant and its characteristic, lion’s teeth-like leaves. In spring it produces shiny yellow flowers that give quite a dash of colour to your garden, and later it develops numerous parachute-like fruits and becomes a blowball. Dandelion can be found widely spread, but shouldn’t just be harvested anywhere because of the environmental pollutions. Especially with the Dandelion, growing the plant at home is recommended. . Active agents: Dandelion is rich in some rare bitter compounds and is one the most famous wild herbs - it is also considered a medicinal plant against liver and bilious complaints. To prepare a Dandelion tea (250 ml), you can douse two heaped teaspoonsful of dried Dandelion herb including roots with hot boiling water and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. After straining the tea, you should always take a few small gulps intermittently with about 2 minutes in between, and not more than three cups a day. Dandelion is also very useful in the kitchen for preparing a range of tasty dishes. It is perfectly suited as a vegetable or a herbal base in a wild herb salad or for a wild herb pesto. With a few handsful of blossoms, together with lemon, water and gelling sugar, you can also make a tasty jam. Natural Place: The Dandelion originally comes from West Asia. On the southern hemisphere it can only sparsely be found. Cultivation: Seed propagation indoors is possible throughout the year. However, a pre-cultivation in February and planting out later on, would be ideal. Seeding outdoors from March onwards, or in late summer is possible as well. Spread the fine seeds onto moist potting compost and put just a little compost earth on top. Cover the seed container with clear film to prevent the earth from drying out, but don’t forget to make some holes in the clear film and take it every second or third day completely off for about 2 hours. That way you avoid mold formation on your potting compost. Place the seed container somewhere bright and warm with a temperature between 20°C and 25°Celsius and keep the earth moist, but not wet. It will take three to five weeks until germination, and in June you can plant the small seedlings out. Place: Dandelion grows nicely in sunny places with nutritious, aerated and humous soil. Care: For tub cultivation, you should pick a rather tall pot since the Dandelion develops strong tap roots. Common potting earth will be sufficient. Fertilizing is only necessary in tub plants, preferably with fertilizer for herbaceous plants. Dandelion can cope with waterlogging rather than with drying out. During Winter: Dandelion is frost-hard and doesn’t need special care during winter. Bonsai: No Picture credits: Because of technical limitations links are shown as text. 25210-taraxacum-officinale-seed-package-front-german.jpg - © Emoke Dénes - CC-BY-SA-2.5 - creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5 15210-taraxacum-officinale-cultivation-instruction-german.jpg - Frank Laue - © Saflax - saflax.de/copyright 15210-17-Taraxacum-officinale.jpg - Emoke Dénes - CC-BY-SA-2.5 - creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -