As you know today is Remembrance Day, also known as Poppy Day. Poppy seeds can lay dormant in the ground for many years without germinating and only grow after the ground has been disturbed. This plant flowered across some the worst battlefields in Flanders, Belgium in World War I which saw some the heaviest fighting. When First World War soldiers saw the poppies blooming in the battlefields, the poppy became a symbol of new life and hope.
On Radipole during the winter 2007 the ditches near the Visitor Centre were re-profiled and cleared after 30 years of silting up and vegetation. The diggers moved in during September 2007 and “slubbed” the ditches causing major disturbance of the soil which was banked up on the sides. The following spring in 2008, poppy plants appeared on the disturbed soil and were recorded for the first time on Radipole.
We Will Remember Them