Posted on 05/28/2022 5:07:06 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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The Remembrance Day symbolism of the poppy started with a poem written by a World War I brigade surgeon who was struck by the sight of the red flowers growing on a ravaged battlefield.
From 1914 to 1918, World War I took a greater human toll than any previous conflict, with some 8.5 million soldiers dead of battlefield injuries or disease. The Great War, as it was then known, also ravaged the landscape of Western Europe, where most of the fiercest fighting took place. From the devastated landscape of the battlefields, the red poppy would grow and, thanks to a famous poem, become a powerful symbol of remembrance.
Across northern France and Flanders (northern Belgium), the brutal clashes between Allied and Central Powers soldiers tore up fields and forests, tearing up trees and plants and wreaking havoc on the soil beneath. But in the warm early spring of 1915, bright red flowers began peeking through the battle-scarred land: Papaver rhoeas, known variously as the Flanders poppy, corn poppy, red poppy and corn rose. As Chris McNab, author of “The Book of the Poppy,” wrote in an excerpt published in the Independent, the brilliantly colored flower is actually classified as a weed, which makes sense given its tenacious nature.
Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian who served as a brigade surgeon for an Allied artillery unit, spotted a cluster of poppies that spring, shortly after the Second Battle of Ypres. McCrae tended to the wounded and got a firsthand look at the carnage of that clash, in which the Germans unleashed lethal chlorine gas for the first time in the war. Some 87,000 Allied soldiers were killed, wounded or went missing in the battle (as well as 37,000 on the German side); a friend of McCrae’s, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, was among the dead.
Struck by the sight of bright red blooms on broken ground, McCrae wrote a poem, “In Flanders Field,” in which he channeled the voice of the fallen soldiers buried under those hardy poppies. Published in Punch magazine in late 1915, the poem would be used at countless memorial ceremonies, and became one of the most famous works of art to emerge from the Great War. Its fame had spread far and wide by the time McCrae himself died, from pneumonia and meningitis, in January 1918.
https://www.history.com/news/world-war-i-poppy-remembrance-symbol-veterans-day
Your Complete Guide to Planting and Growing Poppies
Although they don’t bloom for long periods of time, poppies bring a delightful dose of color and a wild, freeform aesthetic to any garden or landscape.
These relatively easy-to-maintain wildflowers have many forms; there are roughly 100 species, including several hybrids such as Amazing Grey, the California poppy (eschscholzia calnifornica), and prickly poppy (argemone polyanthemos), which range in color from deep bold hues, like citrine orange and canary yellow, to softer shades, like creamy white and blush pink.
“Poppies are quintessential wildflowers with a loose, carefree spirit,” says horticulturist Kelly D. Norris, the author of New Naturalism: Designing and Planting a Resilient, Ecologically Vibrant Home Garden. “They make great cut flowers and support foraging pollinators, too.”
https://www.marthastewart.com/8074506/planting-growing-poppies-guide
Morning All! Great start to the thread. I actually started a thread yesterday for Memorial Day but it looks like it’s not getting traction. We must never forget the sacrifices of so many for our freedoms.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4066701/posts
We are on track for out best garden ever. I’ll have pictures once things start growing more.
I can’t believe it’s Memorial Day weekend already - time has flown by. Thanks for the thread & poppy info. We’ve had a few in some wildflower mixes and they are pretty.
This morning, we have an inch of rain in our new rain gauge – along with the 1.5 inches we got 2 days ago, that’s a total of 2.5 in 3 days. Everything is sopping wet this morning – every time the wind blows, the rain drops blowing off the trees are like another min-storm.
Last evening was a bit tense. We had a tornado watch for most of the day & that turned into a tornado warning between 7 and 8 pm. The TV and my phone were going off with emergency warnings. When you see your street name on the map in the “red cone”, that is scary. The main storm looked like it was going to go west of us, but then shifted and came directly over. Fortunately, by the time it got to us, the wind shear had reduced, the small debris field spotted on radar was still west, and we got rain that was coming down so hard, it looked like white fog. We did not get any damaging winds. There was another line of storms that came through later, after dark and again, just heavy rains. The weather mets had been concerned about straight-line winds with those storms.
So this morning is gorgeous – blue sky which should last all day, lower humidity and a high temp forecast for around 80. The garden needs work badly & the grass needs cutting, but is way too wet. It looks like the garden is going to get attention while the grass dries out.
I planted peat pots Monday before last with mixed success. All the cukes came up so I have 2 Divas & 2 Dragon eggs – still 2 leaf stage so not ready to put them in the garden yet. I have 2 (of 4) bush bean plants – I’ll replace the 2 that didn’t germinate. Of 4 jalapenos, I spotted 1 coming up just yesterday – I’d given up on them. I really want this variety so I’ll replant the 3 that didn’t come up & try again. No bell peppers or thithonia – the bell seeds are older, so I’ll try again with them & use different seeds for the tithonia. I used some older commercial seeds for the tiths – will try with some seeds I managed to save from the finches last year.
If I get nothing else done in the garden today, I must get the fences up. So far the tomatoes are ok, but I know that the beans & maybe the cukes will get eaten if I don’t have the fencing. The herbs & zinnias are covered with fence panels (pvc & netting) so they’re protected for now, but I’ll need those panels for the perimeter fence. I have had no problems with the zinnias, grown outside the fence, getting eaten in years past and I hope that holds true for this year. The herbs …. we’ll find out if they are tasty. Deer do not like fragrant plants or plants with ‘texture’, especially anything ‘fuzzy’. I’m hoping they’ll leave the herbs alone. I am considering making panels specifically for plant protection of small plants just being started in the raised beds – the size would be somewhat different & fit more exactly than the fence panels. That’s going to be a project for another day … probably another month if I can ever get the garden under control.
I’m planting a bunch of herbs in the hopes it will discourage browsers, but also for the benefit of having my own organic herbs to dry.
If the tops of my garlic plants are any indicator of the size of the bulbs, I will be having a terrific crop.
Lost my garden here in central Arkansas. Thought I had bad seeds, but the local co-op told me all are having this problem. Seems we’ve had a wet spring with unusual highs and lows that have caused the seeds to rot before germination. Am turning the rows again today and replanting.
Best of luck on your efforts, Victory gardens will be needed especially this fall. WWG1WGA!
I love garlic - have always wanted to plant it and never have. Maybe next year ..... hope your bulbs are as good as the tops are indicating! :-)
I have recipes that call for fresh thyme so I love growing that particular herb (2 kinds this year). My Thanksgiving dressing calls for sage. Basil for pesto, but I may try salt preserving this year (if the bugs don’t eat all my basil leaves first!). I’ve also got lemon verbena & oregano. My big rosemary plant died so I have a small one planted - don’t use it in cooking so much, just love rubbing my hand over the needles ... that smell is delicious and one of my favorites.
Blessed Memorial Day to you.
Here in the northeast, oregano, thyme, and sage are perennials.
I plant basil every year and have never seen anything attack that. I planted lavender last year and thought I lost it all but much of it is coming back.
I’m about to have a big crop of tomatoes to harvest.
Anybody got a recommendation for a processor to make sauce for canning?
It has been a crazy year for gardens, just when we need them with looming food shortages. I often think of my grandparents (both sets) that had large gardens every year. Both grannies canned to preserve food to last through the winter. If the garden failed .... well, it was slim pickings during the winter months.
They did have animals they could butcher - both grandfathers butchered more hogs than anything & both were excellent sausage makers. Cows and sheep were rarely butchered for the family because they were too valuable as sale animals - per my dad, maybe 1 cow per year & 1 lamb for a special occasion (Easter in particular).
They both had chickens and those were most often ‘Sunday dinner’. My dad recently told me a story of waking up one morning & seeing a couple of chickens outside the coop. Since the chickens were locked up every night, they knew someone had gotten into the coop and it turned out that between 30-40 chickens were gone .... cleaned out by thieves. Those were hard times (Depression years) and people were desperate and stealing to eat. In our more modern times, when the grocery shelves are empty & the city dwellers can’t grow their own food ... I hate to think what will happen.
Anyway, to end on a more positive note .... saw this article the other day, written by Dr. Malone on “Victory Gardens” - he is encouraging people to grow them.
The Victory Garden.
Don’t just Consume, Produce. Our parents did it, and so can we.
https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/the-victory-garden?s=r
The article starts with this quote, but it gets into more than just the politics around food - a good read.
“If people let government decide which food they eat and medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny”
Thomas Jefferson
“Anybody got a recommendation for a processor to make sauce for canning?”
Not sure what you’re looking for. A ‘gadget’ that ‘processes’ tomatoes, or the ‘process’ and/or recipe for making sauce and canning it?
https://www.thespruceeats.com/how-to-can-tomato-sauce-2216507
https://www.amazon.com/tomato-processor/s?k=tomato+processor
The past few years I’ve grown lemon verbena and love it! I didn’t see it at the garden center this year, so I have none. I made wonderful lemon verbena liqueur from it the first year, which goes nicely as a sipper or in iced tea for a type of Arnold Palmer with a twist.
I’m just getting over CoVid, which was like a normal cold for me, so I will be taking it easy today still before hopefully getting back in the yard tomorrow. I still have a few flowers that I want to put into containers or the ground.
Last week I repotted the shallots that I had started last summer. The container they were in wasn’t draining well enough. So I dug them all up and separated them from their wet soil, let them dry out for a few hours. I drilled more holes in the container which is like a portable raised bed on wheels. I always disinfect with a bleach solution for 10 minutes when reusing a container. Then dried it out and put in fresh organic potting mix. I replanted the shallots and so far I think they are improving. They finally aren’t soggy after a rain, just wet. I probably lost half of the shallots that originally planted, so it will be a smaller crop, but hopefully I will get something from these. A few look like they are forming a blossom. Since I’ve never grown shallots before, can anyone tell me when they should be ready? Thanks much for any input.
I have not grown shallots before, but love them in cooking - you’ve given me another idea for something to plant next year! :-)
Nice Victory Garden article. Thanks for sharing it!
I read somewhere that they do better with an overwintering, so maybe they are something that should be planted in the fall?? I’m not sure at all.
Dr. Malone is a favorite of mine, for many reasons.
He has a horse farm in our state (beautiful area) ..... check out the link if you want to see some truly beautiful animals! I used to show dressage & raised a couple of Thoroughbred babies so I love seeing his horses.
https://www.lusitanostud.com/?fbclid=IwAR2HvmKJOtq-0JPtN0h8QuuyACIosnRTejYVoFmvR8BzsfMOQF5mmtMdXmM
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