Barbara Hart Radisavljevic
I have long loved the red or Flanders poppy. Although I had planted it in my garden many years ago, I didn’t think it had come up. Then all of a sudden I saw a number of mystery plants appear in my garden the next year. The leaves looked a bit like mustard leaves. It was only when they bloomed I discovered they were lovely red poppies. I enjoyed them and saved their seeds and threw them around outside the boundaries of my herb garden. I think Mother Nature helped.
The next year, I had a field of these red Flanders poppies behind my herb garden. It must have been a rainy year. Again, I saved seeds and threw them around, but my field of red never came back. Or maybe my weed abatement man got to them before I did. I only wish I’d had a decent camera back then, but I didn’t. I hadn’t started to write online yet and saw no need to photograph so much of what I did in the garden.
When I moved to Paso Robles I bought some seeds for the Flanders poppy and it bloomed in May right on schedule for National Poppy Day. It’s celebrated on May 25 this year, just before Memorial Day. This poppy symbolizes the sacrifice of those who have given their lives fighting for the United States from World War I on.
I’ve always loved this particular photo of the poppies growing in this flower bed next to the sidewalk. I like the effect of the shadows falling on the sidewalk. That’s why I used this photo for Kim’s challenge. If you have photos of shadows or silhouettes you’d like to share, click this link to join Kim’s Just for Fun Challenge on Shadows and Silhouettes.
Amazing! Beautiful photos of the wonderful poppy. This photo is so artistic and special.
Thank you, Albert. I’ve always cherished this photo.
Pleasure is mine, Barbara.
Hi Barb, that is beautiful. Well I followed you here from MyLot and found and used your referral link, but have no idea how to get connected to you on here now.
I just followed you and left instructions on how to follow people in my reply on your first post. I’m just so happy you are here. I don’t even remember leaving a referral link on myLot. This site is addictive, for sure. Be sure to follow Rex Trulove. I think you’d like his posts.
Yes, I do like Rex’s posts and will follow him now that I know how to follow people! I did not see your link, but found it by googling. Maybe I could find my own link that way too.
I usually follow new people by looking at comments on the posts of others and on my own. I also look at the leaderboard to see who’s most active. Seems most of the time I’m interacting with the same ten or fifteen people who seem to have common interests.
I have always loved poppies, but I didn’t know what they mean for the US.
I read that in Europe they had a similar meaning.
Poppies are about as hard to draw as roses. Thank you.
I’ll be coming back to this o e, repeatedly, until I get it.
I hope you’ll share your work here after you “get it.” I can’t draw anything recognizable.
Beautiful bloom, I love the symbolism that comes with this flower.
I do, too. That’s one reason I like to grow them.
I never have for whatever reason, I sure need to add them to my garden.
It’s not too hard if you plant them at the right time. They make a great display if you have lot of them. And they do reseed:)
Thank you. It’s one of my favorite photos.
Lovely flowers! I’m so in love with the colour!
These poppies are a lovely shade of red.
What a great photograph! Thank you for entering it. You just gave me a great idea, I didn’t know you could save poppy seeds, I don’t know why. When do you collect them and where are they? I know of some wild ones I would love to get seeds from. They have just now started to bloom.
When the poppy flowers die they leave a cup of seeds at the top where the center was. When this is dry enough, it bursts and the seeds are thrust out. The trick is to get there before they are completely dry and burst. You could put a paper bag over the to and fasten it at the bottom so it will collect the seeds. Or you could keep careful watch and pick the cups just as they dry and collect them, which is what I did. Get them from the best flowers.
Got it, thank you so much. I will go check on them often. They are wild!
I’ve pick up wild lupine seeds by seeing them at the right time at the beach.
I need to go out and collect more. That would be fun.
Such a beautiful flower! I remember seeing them at my grandparents house but I never knew the story why my grandparents had planted them!
I planted mine just because I thought they were beautiful. Maybe your grandparents did the same.
I don’t know, I never asked when I could. Now, I can’t ask.
Why is it we never are mature or curious enough to ask the questions while the people who can answer them are still alive? Many times they only arise when we sort the family photos we inherited.
That is a question for the ages. I do not have an answer.