poppies growing in flanders fields

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Poppies Growing In Flanders Fields

REALITY BEHIND STORY AND FACTS
The place known as Flanders Field, it is a United States military cemetery at Waregem, Belgium; American soldiers that died in World War I were buried there. In fact, Flanders is a region of mainly flat land that covers parts of southwestern Netherlands, Belgium, and northeastern France.

Why poppies growing in Flanders fields? The answer is on Belgium’s climate conditions. Belgium has a temperate climate, characterized by alternating high and low pressure weather systems moved in from the Atlantic Ocean by the prevailing westerly winds. Summers usually are warm but not hot. Winters are cold but not severe. In the interior lowlands, average daily temperature extremes range between 31º Fahrenheit (-1º Celsius) and 42º Fahrenheit (6º Celsius) in midwinter and between 54º Fahrenheit (12º Celsius) and 73º Fahrenheit (23º Celsius) in midsummer. Along the coast, average daytime temperatures in the summer are somewhat lower. Winters and summers are cooler in the forests of the Ardennes plateau. Precipitation is fairly evenly distributed throughout the year, with spring usually the driest season. The annual average precipitation ranges from less than 30 inches (76 centimeters) in some lowland areas nearer to the sea to more than 40 inches (100 centimeters) in the Ardennes plateau. Belgium's most productive farmland lies north of the Meuse and Sambre rivers. Here, and in the adjoining areas of the Kempenland and Flanders, such specialty crops as fruits, poppy flowers, vegetables, hops, flax, chicory, tobacco, and flower bulbs are raised.

Poppies growing in Flanders fields: the most known poppy flower in this region is the Red Corn Poppy or Flanders Poppy, also known as Shirley poppy (Papaver rhoeas). It is an annual plant. This European native poppy has become naturalized all over the United States. It reaches a height of 3 to 4 inches and it has deep red blooms with purple-black centers. This Flanders Poppy prefers a well-drained soil. Flanders poppy is sowed in late fall for best spring showing; it needs full sun and partial shade. In spring or early summer, the interesting-looking buds open into beautiful single, semi-double, or double flowers on 2 foot stems in pink, red, white, and yellow. This variety of poppy is a showstopper when massed in the garden.

The poppy movement was inspired by the poem "In Flanders Fields" written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae of the Canadian forces in 1915 before the United States entered World War I. Artists of the impressionism current painted those fields of scarlet poppies; these poppies were grown by Reverend Wilkes, Vicar of Shirley in England. That is why these poppies are known as Shirley poppies. The poppy flower is a recognized United States symbol of sacrifice and is worn to honor the men and women who served and died for their country in all wars.