History and New Beginnings: The Case for Dandelions

By Barbara F. Smith

Another Spring season begins! With May showers, flowers and herb-infused cookies, the Herb Associates greeted the new graduates of the BBG Horticulture Certificate Program held on May 9. This adult education program is geared toward professionals, aspiring professionals, or serious home gardeners wishing to expand their knowledge, expertise, and enjoyment in the garden.

For decades, the Herb Associates have played a role in celebrating these graduates, with a traditional “Mai Bowle” – a sparkling wine punch flavored with sweet woodruff blossoms served in a punch bowl surrounded by violas, pansies and forget-me-nots. Even the cookies saluted history, being served on hand-painted daffodil plates, presents from the Berkshire Garden Club and Lenox Garden Club forty years ago (see photos).

The BBG Display and Production Herb Gardens, located near the Center House, are looking good! The Herb Associates who tend these gardens are busy cleaning up the various beds, arranged by herb use (think culinary, fragrance, medicinal, or dyeing, for example). The Kitchen Crew will be starting soon, and we all look forward to enjoying the variety of jellies, dressings, mustards, herb blends, and more that will be produced and sold to benefit the Garden.

Articles written during this 2026 growing season will feature not only what’s blooming, being harvested and prepared into various herbal products, but also will provide information on how some of the plants relate to our history as a country.  As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we recognize the valuable role that herbs have played in colonial and independent America.

At the opening of the gardening season, we all have noticed dandelions in our yards or meadows, although not necessarily in our garden beds. This herb has a history you may find surprising.  

Dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) are hardy perennial plants, familiar to most with their sunny yellow flowers in Spring. They are members of the vast Daisy or Aster families (Asteraceae or Compositae), sharing a similar flower shape. Dandelions thrive in many conditions, elevations and soil types, and they serve as a food source for hungry spring pollinators.

Early settlers to what became the United States brought dandelion seeds with them, recognizing their culinary use as a reliable cooked green and their medicinal uses to treat liver, kidney and digestive issues. By 1672, botanical surveys recorded that dandelions were well established across New England.  

Modern herbalists recognize the herbal properties that relate to the specific actions a herb has on the human body. For dandelions, these properties are: “digestive,” helping the stomach function more efficiently (other herb examples with this property are fennel, peppermint and lemon balm); “diuretic,” helping relieve fluid retention or bloating (other examples include stinging nettle and yarrow); “febrifuge,” helping to lower fevers (others include catnip, hyssop and yarrow); and, “cholagogues,” which stimulate the liver and its blood-cleansing action (like goldenseal and rosemary do).

All parts of dandelions are used in herbal medicine. The leaves are high in vitamins A, C and K, and minerals such as calcium, iron and potassium. A simple tea brewed from the leaves is said to boost the immune system and help promote healthy digestion.  

Even the taproots of dandelions are useful. Their presence in your lawn may indicate stressed or depleted conditions, but the root will act as a natural aerator, breaking up compacted soil layers and improving conditions for earthworms. Roots release organic compounds rich in carbon that serve as a direct food source for beneficial fungi and bacteria. The root will also bring nutrients and water from the deep. Add any dandelion plant material to your compost pile to add valuable organic material.

All parts of dandelions are edible, although you should take care when gathering the flowers, leaves and roots to avoid areas where chemicals or pesticides have been sprayed. The leaves may be used in salads or cooked as greens.  Flower petals may be added to eggs, salads and grain dishes. The taproot may be added like carrots to soup or stews. Or, the roots may be dried and roasted, then ground for a coffee substitute. 

Only in the 1940s and 1950s did the opinion of dandelions turn from being considered a useful plant to being a weed. One hopes that with the information provided here, you may be able to change your mind about the dandelions you encounter!  

On your next trip to the Berkshire Botanical Garden, stop by the Gift Shop to purchase a jar of the limited supply of Herb Associates’ Dandelion Jelly. It’s a highly seasonal treat at the start of the new gardening year!

Resources for this article: a podcast called “Seeds & Weeds,” which had a recent program “All About Dandelions” hosted by Bevin Cohen, the author of “Herbs in Every Season: The Culinary Herbal” by Susan Belsinger & Arthur O. Tucker; and “The New American Herbal,” by Stephen Orr.

"Dandelion" by Ted Kooser

The first of a year’s abundance of dandelions

is this single kernel of bright yellow

dropped on our path by the sun, sensing

that we might need some marker to help us

find our way through life, to find a path

over the snow-flattened grass that was

blade by blade unbending into green,

on a morning early in April, this happening

just at the moment I thought we were lost

and I’d stopped to look around, hoping

to see something I recognized. And there

it was, a commonplace dandelion, right

at my feet, the first to bloom, especially

yellow, as if pleased to have been the one,

chosen from all the others, to show us the way.

The Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Herb Associates began in 1957 and have been making and selling products for the benefit of BBG ever since. At BBG, the Herb Associates oversee a display garden and production garden, both located near the Center House. Members/volunteers meet every Tuesday morning during the late spring through mid-autumn each year, coinciding when the gardens themselves are open to the public. Members plant, weed and tend the gardens, as well as harvest and process the variety of herbs.