100% of the donation for every poppy goes to the cause. They sell a variety of different poppy products, such as pins, brooches and other goods. you can buy them from the British Legion. Of course, if you don’t want to grow your own poppies. We recommend growing Shirley Single Mixed – annuals that can grow up to 60cm (2ft) in lovely shades of pink and red. There are lots of different types you can grow. If you are considering growing your own poppies, it is important to note that they thrive best in well-drained soil and in a sunny location. Cut flowers often only last for a day as the cut stems leak (tip: seal the cut end by dipping them in boiling water or use a bare flame), whereas a plant can produce a proliferation of beautiful poppies over a season. The seeds are either nutty or sweet in flavour depending on the species.įor whatever the purpose, growing your own poppies can be very rewarding. Poppy seeds are derived from seed pods that develop below the base of the flowers when the flowers die. They are also commonly used as an edible ingredient in cooking. Poppies have many different purposes, primarily ornamental due to their vibrant colours, with some growing to more than 1.2m (4ft) tall with flowers of up to 15cm (6in) wide. The Royal Horticultural Society’s Plant Finder lists 374 poppy species and varieties available in Britain, including perennials, biennials, and annuals. If you are interested in reading up on the entire history of the poppy and how it came to be such a prominent symbol, this is a fantastic resource. She became known as ‘The Poppy Lady’ and was instrumental in making the poppy as significant as it is today as a symbol to remember. Since then Moina Michael was inspired by the poppy as a way of remembering fallen heroes and making the plastic poppies as a method of raising money for the suffering. We wrote an article earlier this year that covered the origination of the Poppy in depth. The origination of the poppy flower in relation to the World War was during the springtime on the front lines in France and Belgium. The following year on the same day a 2-minute silence began in reflect and remember those that sacrificed so that we could live in a better world. The First World War officially ended on November 11, 1918, at 11 am Armistice Day, now known as Remembrance Day. Here in Westmount, there are veterans proudly pinning red blooms to people's jackets at our local Metro grocery store on Victoria Avenue.The poppy appeal is a symbol of ‘remembrance day’, which is an annual moment in which we stop what we are doing and remember the sacrifices and suffering of the people that were killed, injured or affected in World War One, and all conflicts since. Your best bet is to buy an artificial one from a veteran selling in your community! From late October until November 11th, poppies are available for purchase at various public locations. Since they are not particulary long-lasting flowers, we don't often carry them in our shops. You might be wondering if we carry the real version of these symbolic flowers at Westmount Florist. Pictured above: An artificial poppy from the 1920's In the span of just a year, sales of these vibrant flowers became so popular that in 1922 the British Legion opened a factory staffed by ex-servicemen to produce their own. In 1921, Britain began selling the artificial poppies to raise money for ex-servicemen and the families of those who died in conflict. In response to McCrae’s poem, the American humanitarian Moina Michael wrote, ‘And now the Torch and Poppy Red, we wear in honor of our dead…’ She began campaigning to make the poppy the official flower to symbolize remembrance for those who had died in war. How the flower became an official symbol of remembrance Pictured above: Westmount Florist founder, George Pickrell (far left), WWII With Remembrance Day right around the corner, poppies are in full bloom as Canadians wear the tiny red flower in honour of those who fought for the country. The large amounts of poppies that bloomed on the combat fields provided inspiration for the Canadian Doctor John McCrae to write his famous poem ‘In Flanders Fields’, which he wrote while serving in Ypres in 1915. These bright red flowers flourished in the soil that was churned up by fights on land. The poppy is a prominent symbol of remembrance that is usually linked to Armistice Day (November 11th), but many people don’t know that this delicate bloom’s origin as a symbol for remembrance actually dates back to the First World War.
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