Feature Flower Friday: Poppy

Hi there all of you Garden of Eden Flower Shop (and chocolates and gifts) fans! We’d like to welcome you all to our new Feature Flower Friday! Each week, we will be feature a different type of flower, the meaning behind them and the reasons you would give or present them to someone else. Join us this week, as we cover the poppy in honor of Memorial Day! Poppies are a flower that carry a great meaning in the United States, especially around Memorial Day. Traditionally, these flowers stand for remembrance and sacrifice, but can differ in meaning depending on where in the world you are. For example, in the Far East the poppy stands for a love that is deep and eternal, but a white poppy stands for death. Now, with this symbolism in mind, how did we in the West associate the poppy with the remembrance of soldiers? The story starts all the way back in World War I, where a Canadian Lieutenant-Colonel by the name of John McCrae was serving on the front lines in Belgium. During the second battle of Ypres, McCrae lost a close friend of his, and performed the burial himself. Afterwards, he noticed how quickly poppies grew around the grave of the fallen soldiers, and took to writing a poem entitled “In Flanders Fields,” detailing the sacrifices that his fellow soldiers had to make when fighting. The poem also alluded to the poppy as being a sign of war, and after the poem was widely published, many wore poppies to honor the soldiers lost during the war. The tradition continued to this day, where you will still see many people around Memorial Day wear poppies to honor those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country. This Memorial Day, please keep the poppy in mind as you celebrate with your family. It may be one small flower, but it has a whole lot of meaning behind it. Have a very happy Memorial Day!