Plucked the gowans fine

From Jeeves in the Morning by P.G. Wodehouse.

Bertie Wooster:

It was, as you may well imagine, in pretty fairly melancholy mood that I donned the bath robe and made my way back to the house. There's always something about the going phut of an old friendship that tends to lower the spirits. It was many years since this Cheesewright and I had started what I believe is known as plucking the gowans fine, and there had been a time whe we had plucked them rather assiduously. But his attitude at the recent get-together had made it plain that the close season for gowans had now set in, and, as I say, it rather saddened me.

Wodehouse enthusiast Terry Mordue explains here.

Gowan is a general name for various white or yellow field flowers. When used without qualification, it is usually taken to refer to the common daisy, Bellis perennis. The phrase "plucked the gowans fine" is an English translation of phrase from a well-known Scottish poem and song:

We twa hae run about the braes,
And pou'd the gowans fine,
But we've wander'd monie a weary fit,
Sin auld lang syne.

Robert Burns, "Auld Lang Syne" (1788)