Mother Nature.  What a gal…  You’ve got to give her credit, she’s quite the industrious gardener.  Leave a plot of ground unattended for even a short time, and she’ll dive right in and start working.  Even our lawns aren’t spared her loving touch.  She must not really care for the carefully manicured, smooth expanses that most of us like in front of our homes.  It takes no time at all for her to start her ministrations,  tossing seeds hither and yon, and upsetting the best laid plans of everyone trying to have a putting green (or at least a fairway) as their yard.

I envision her as a somewhat absent minded (in that carefully crafted,  wisdom-of-the-ages style),  slightly distracted, but always completely aware of what’s going on.  Puttering around in her garden, which is of course the entire planet, cooing sweet nothings to her botanical charges. Look, a butterfly just landed on her outstretched finger.  They’re whispering something to each other, but of course we’ll never be privy to what they share.  Sometimes she’ll look over at you while she’s in communion with her various creatures, and I swear she’s telling it some funny little story, probably at the human’s expense.  She’s not above a little teasing, now and then.

I’ve discovered one thing about her, however.  I know what her favorite flower is.

Humans spend a lot of time and effort on various plants, growing beautiful flowers to express various emotions.  A favorite, of course, is the rose.

Long a symbol of our love, a beautiful rose is sure to express emotions we sometimes don’t even realize we’re experiencing until it makes it’s appearance at some important event.

Different colors mean different things, from romantic love, to goodbye, to mourning, and sometimes just because.

I’m sure Mother Nature loves her roses, but she made them rather fragile.  The require constant attention to flourish, and once cut, they fade quickly.  Perhaps a subtle reminder of the temporary nature of our lives.

Another fragile but beloved flower of the humans on planet Earth, is the Orchid.

Also another fragile flower, requiring careful tending, the orchid is a beautiful splash of color from Mother Nature’s palette.  What bee wouldn’t love to pollinate something like this incredible flower.

As wonderful as these and other flowers and plants are, I’ve figured out Mother Nature’s favorite.  It came to me recently, when I was kneeling down pulling weeds from my yard.

Mother Nature’s favorite “flower”?

The winner is of course the lowly dandelion!  They grow anywhere and everywhere, they propagate in hours, and even the bees love them!  Give Mother Nature a toe-hold in your yard, and dandelions will appear in short order!  Even keeping after them daily is no guarantee that they will be kept in check.  Large stalks of fluffy white seed heads can appear from nothing in less than 24 hours.  A slight breeze, or the most minor disturbance, and another batch is ready to sprout!

Yep, she loves her dandelions!

Mother Nature can be a real bitch, sometimes!