Also called dandelion clock, blowball wish, fairy clock
Make a wish and blow the white seed head of a dandelion; if every seed flies in one breath, the wish is said to come true. The same puffs were once counted to tell the time or ask about love.
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Take care: Avoid lawns treated with weedkiller. Seeds can irritate the eyes, so blow away from faces.
Children counted how many puffs it took to clear the head, and that number was the hour, which is why the seed head is called a dandelion clock. On Dartmoor it was also said that seeds falling with no breeze meant rain was coming.
Uses: seed head
A girl blew while thinking of a sweetheart. If all the seeds left, he was true; seeds left behind showed doubt, or in some versions the number of children she would have or years until she married.
Uses: seed head
Rather than wishing for yourself, you think of an absent loved one and blow, trusting the seeds to carry your thoughts to them.
The dandelion, Taraxacum, was a common food and medicine plant across Europe, and its seed head, with its parachute seeds, invited play. Local British folklore collections record children using it as a clock, counting puffs to tell the hour, and using it to ask about love, marriage and the weather. An illustration of 1895 titled Blowing dandelion seeds shows the custom already familiar. No early written origin for the wish itself has been found, and it is honest to say the custom is known mainly from oral tradition and 19th and 20th-century collections.
The wish form spread with European settlement to North America, where the rule that all seeds must go in one breath is the most common version. In Argentina and other Latin American countries children blow the seeds to make wishes too. The plant's many folk names, such as clock, blowball and fairy clock, show how closely it was tied to children's games.
Peel an apple in one unbroken strip, throw it over your shoulder, and read the letter it makes on the floor as the initial of a future partner.
Make a silent wish and blow out all the candles on your birthday cake in one breath; if they all go out, the wish comes true. The custom took shape at German children's birthdays in the 1700s.
A white clover stem that grew four leaflets instead of three, kept as a charm for good luck. In older British and Irish lore it also let the finder see through fairy glamour.
Tell us what you need and we will craft a custom spell, charm or reading for it. Or call to book a reading or a road blessing in person.
