WW1 Centenary - Flanders Poppies

Back in the spring I was given some packets of red field poppies to mark the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War 1 from Poppi Red Cafe & Shop in Hawkeshead. The Centenary Campaign was an idea of the Greenhithe and Swanscombe  branch of The British Legion (hhttp://www.britishlegion.org.uk/remembrance/ww1-centenary/centenary-poppy-campaign).

 I had the perfect place to sow them.

2 years ago I made a circular flower bed between some apple trees for wild flowers. I bought some wild flower seed mix online (can't remember where from) and the first year the results were beautiful.

Spring 2012

Year 1 - July 2012

I had let the flowers go to seed and late summer I cut them down leaving the seeds to scatter around clearing the dead foliage & stems away in the autumn. 

The following spring I just turned the soil over and left it to its own devises but a white achillea  and a yellow flower took over with not much else appearing. Not sure where these 2 came from as I don't remember them from the year before!

Year 2 - July 2013

So this spring I dug it over again and removed all roots and seedlings as they had started to grow already. Forgetmenots were taking over too, so I pulled up as many of them as I could. After clearing the patch I left it it a couple of weeks pulling up anything that started to grow that I didn't want. 

I then sowed the poppy seeds, added some blue cornflowers and some of the wild flower mix I had left (wasn't holding out for a good result from these as they were old). As things started to grow I noticed more forgetmenots growing so I painstaking pulled up as many seedlings as I could.

This is what flowered first.

?

Don't know what these are. Pretty but not what I wanted really.

When these had finished I cut then down to prevent them setting seed.

Then came the poppies, the odd daisy type flower, a tall magenta flower (I will talk about this plant in another post)  but only 1 cornflower! Ah well, I'll try again next year to get a better mix.

Year 3 - Field Poppies

Beautiful but makes you stop and think of all the soldiers who lost their lives for our country. 

Zx