The Grenfell Garden Club have adopted an idea from local resident Jenny Hetherington that next year the community of Grenfell plant an abundance of poppies all over town to mark the special occasion.

Committee members are asking and encouraging other residents and organisations to take part in this project and to plant them in their gardens, schools, hospital, parks and town entrances etc. Poppies are prolific seeders with one or two pods producing hundreds of seeds. Seeds are easy to grow and if planted about Anzac Day, they will flower about October/November just in time for this nationwide anniversary.

The Garden Club will have seeds available early next year from a central location. If you already have them growing, could you leave the seed capsules to mature and dry before saving them in a paper bag and contact Jenny Hetherington, Chris Lobb, or a Garden Club member if you have some to spare.

Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day, Armistice Day or Veteran’s Day) is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth countries to remember the members of their armed forces who have died in the line of duty since World War 1.

The poppy has become a familiar emblem of Remembrance Day due to the Poem “In Flanders Field”. These poppies bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders in World War 1, their brilliant red colour an appropriate symbol for blood spilled in the war.

The Garden Club hope as many residents as possible can come on board and support this project in honour of our veterans.