Autumn Lingers

The last few days in November and still we have some colour in the garden from this Liquidambar styraciflua or Sweet Gum Tree. Brought originally into the UK from America it has large, star-like, shiny, bright green leaves which turn brilliant purple, then shades of orange and yellow in the autumn.

Remembrance Day

This year Remembrance Day takes on additional significance as it marks the 100th anniversary of the commencement of the First World War. The poppy has a long association with Remembrance Day. Scarlet corn poppies (papaver rhoeas) grow naturally in conditions of disturbed earth throughout Western Europe. The destruction brought by the Napoleonic wars of the early 19th Century transformed bare land into fields of blood red poppies, growing around the bodies of the fallen soldiers.In late 1914, the fields of Northern France and Flanders were once again ripped open as World War One raged through Europe's heart. Once the conflict was over the poppy was one of the only plants to grow on the otherwise barren battlefields.