THE FLANDERS POPPY

This past Sunday it was Remembrance Sunday in England. A day on which those who died in the great wars are remembered. Remembrance day or Veterans day as it is know in the US is November 11th and at 11am on this day the country observes two minutes silence to remember those who died in the wars. November 11th at 11am is the moment at which the First World War came to an end. In England the Flanders or corn poppy, Papaver rhoeas, has become the flower synonymous with remembering those who have died for their country.

Corn poppies grow wild in my garden every year. Their seeds brought up from the deep as I work the soil, just like those of the poppies which grow in the fields at Ypres. They were disturbed by the the building of trenches and the artillary attacks.

In 1915, Lt Col. John McCrae, a doctor serving with the Canadian forces, wrote this poem in memory of his friend whom he had buried in May 1915. The poem appeared in the December issue of Punch that year. The poppy has become synonymous with the day and in England the poppy is worn in the buttonhole to remember those who lost their lives in the wars.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

This fall I planted seeds which came from the poppies in those fields, kindly given by Walt Krueger, one of Austin's Master Gardeners.

Let us all remember those who have given their lives that we might be free.