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
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 about to have a big crop of tomatoes to harvest.
Anybody got a recommendation for a processor to make sauce for canning?
At the moment, I'm trying to batten everything down before the hot weather sets in, in about a month. We'll have heat after that all the way until November.
So soon, it will be time to say good-bye to most of my roses until late fall:
Irises are about done:
I'm hoping there is enough shade to protect my petunias:
These two will become lazier as the heat sets in, they're already practicing.
My new project: Heat-proof rock gardens:
Happy gardening - I'm going outside now to haul rocks!
A Himalayan Griffin Vulture makes itself look bigger and more
dangerous with its big fake face and eyes.
This past week I planted my peppers, such as they were, and celery.
Today I am putting in beans and butternut squash.
I started a bunch of tomato seeds in early March and put them out just after Mother’s Day. It looked to be an early last date of frost and was. And I have so many plants, that I figured if I lost them I would just replant out of the extras.
Today I noticed that my Slava tomatoes all have flowers on them! Already!!!!!
Most years, I am just getting the plants in the ground about this time. Have never seen tomatoes flower so early except for store bought garden center plants for an extortionate price.
Drinking my coffee and standing at the front storm door, watching the hummers come to the feeder, one after another, to fuel up. They are so cute - lots of “chitter chatter” going on yesterday afternoon around the feeder along with aerial acrobatics as they chased each other. Yesterday morning, all 3 feeders got fresh nectar & the 2 in the back yard got bleached ... they were pretty bad. I had the shades off (they are in direct sun most of the day) due to storms with heavy winds, & the nectar spoiled quickly. The red shades are back on & the hummers are feeding there now, too.
Mowed late afternoon, early evening until about 7:45. The place looks like a park this morning - my ‘reward’ for about 3 hours on the mower. Everything around the garden is cut as well, so I don’t have to wade through grass to get to it. The grass is super green after all the rain (2.5” in 3-4 days) and various flowers are blooming. The trees are totally leafed out.
I replanted my peat pots and have two more little jalapenos just breaking through. The last 2 days, I’ve put the little plants (cukes, beans, 2 jalapenos) out in the sun for an hour. The replanted peat pots go out as well - the sun warms them up nicely so hopefully, the remaining seeds will sprout.
I’ve been buying 4-packs of jalapeno plants (maybe 2-3 inches tall) from the local nursery in years past. Last year, the tag just said ‘hot jalapeno’. The peppers were short & stubby and got the brown ‘stretch marks’ early - by the time they were red, they were not something I wanted to use for my now “famous” (among family/friend circles) Jalapeno Pepper Jelly. I only use red peppers & the jelly is a beautiful amber color with red pepper flecks. I will also add that I love jalapeno poppers.
This year, I bought seeds for a “Jalafuego” jalapeno. It is described as “Large, quality jalapeno great for stuffing, as each pepper can reach a colossal, 4” long. Hotter, larger and more productive than other jalapenos. At the higher end of the heat scale for jalapenos, ‘Jalafuego’ registers a 4,000 - 6,000 Scoville heat unit rating (medium hot). Delicious fresh, deep fried, in salsa or dried and smoked for chipotles. High disease resistance to bacterial leaf spot races 1-3 and potato virus Y.”
I don’t think I’m going to have fat, stubby jalapenos this year! Grow little peppers, grow ... can’t wait for poppers and jelly!
Any of you folks have recipes or useful tips for Hackberries?
I have a very large Hackberry tree kn my land. It has lots if not yet ripe hackberries (green in color) which apparently turn purple when ripe.
The flesh hasba citrus/lime like aroma right now but the flesh definitelybis bitter at this stage.
From what I have read the native Americans would cool em down to a mash and supplement their diet with them and they used it to regulate menstrual cycles or induce abortions.
My guess would be the abortion stuff was during lean times or if they were going into winter but what do I know.
Anyway.....since it is there, and I am not a a “menstruating person” I would love to hear if anyone has a use for these (wine?)
I harvested most of the basil that I had going in the greenhouse. I chopped it a bit and packed it in mason jars with olive oil. Doing that was less work than drying it, and I have a feeling that it will better preserve the flavor. Was the first time I've done it that way, so we'll see. I left enough stump on what I harvested for the plants to recover and make another crop. I seeded another 24 starter cells as insurance against the first batch croaking on me. Also seeded some okra in starter cells. I normally go straight into the dirt with okra seed, but it's kind of finicky about germinating so I thought I would try it in the greenhouse and see how that works.
The summer squash has come up and is looking good. The winter squash, gourds, and cukes seem to be doing well and are already starting to bloom. Pole beans are close to a foot tall now. Green salad and radishes were late going in but they really jumped over the last couple weeks. Peppers and cabbages are doing well. I'll stick some mustard and collard seeds in the ground this evening if by some stroke of luck the rain dissipates before it gets here.
I picked up some straw bales on Friday, and got the tomatoes mulched over the weekend. One of the romas was looking fairly well drowned, but it seems to be a bit happier this morning, but I think the best thing to do would be pull it up and replace it. I've got a spare brandywine in a pot that would do nicely.
Nephew came over on Sunday and helped me finish weeding the garlic rows. The potato row could stand the same treatment. Everything else is in pretty good shape for the time being.
The catalpa tree in our front yard looks like it's been shedding popcorn.
I have a question about grasses and grass seed.
We have several bare spots on the lawn and are looking to reseed.
What kinds of grass are out there that would do well in a northern, Zone 5 climate in full sun or part shade? It can be pretty dry sometimes and we don’t have the ability to water a lot.
What are fescues, ryegrasses, etc and how are they different from each other, and are there any know low growing and slow growing grasses so we don’t have to mow as often.
As an aside, we are starting to have problems with geese on the lawn. We have found droppings and torn up patches of grass all over the place. Why they aren’t up by the pond is beyond me…..