Sacramento Digs Gardening: Red poppies a symbol of remembrance

Red poppies, here blooming in a midtown garden, are the perfect flowers for a Memorial Day bouquet. (Photo: Debbie Arrington)

From Flanders fields to Sacramento, this flower has power as a living tribute

Wherever they bloom, these flowers are living memorials to fallen soldiers.

In the century since World War I, these red poppies have scattered across the globe, a symbol of remembrance and tribute. This month, they're blooming in Sacramento gardens, too. They're a perfect choice for a Memorial Day bouquet.

Few flowers have such a powerful connotation as Flanders poppies, as they're now nicknamed worldwide. Known in Europe as field poppy or common poppy, Papaver rheas filled battlefields in Belgium, France and Turkey.

In their native lands, these wildflowers tend to grow abundantly on the edges of agricultural fields. The seed can lay dormant in the soil for many years. But when plowed to the surface, they quickly sprout and bloom.

That's what happened on the battlefields near Flanders in Belgium as well as northern France and Gallipoli in Turkey. Fighting disturbed the ground and brought millions of seeds to the surface. Amid the trenches and incredible carnage, the poppies started blooming.

The sight of these vibrant red poppies surrounding the graves of fellow soldiers in April 1915 inspired Lt. Col. John McCrae, a Canadian physician, to write "In Flanders Fields." It begins:

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.

McCrae died of pneumonia in France in 1918 before the war was over. By then, his words had already become the most famous poem of World War I and immortalized Flanders poppies forever.

As for growing the poppies, scatter the seed in the fall or early spring for blooms by Memorial Day. Once established, this annual will freely reseed itself year after year, keeping its symbolism alive for generations to come.

GENERAL GARDENING

An article about gardening.

Keywords:

historical plants seeds gardening Sacramento holiday plants wildflowers Memorial Day flowers

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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3

November still offers good weather for fall planting:

* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.

* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.

* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.

* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.

* Plant garlic and onions.

* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.

* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.

* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.

* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.

* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.

* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.

* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.

* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.

* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.

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