WILDFLOWERS OR WEEDS
Extract from my book WILDFLOWERS, WILDERNESS AND WINE.
In 1993 I had asked Eberhard to plough the field in front of our house to allow me to establish a wildflower meadow like I had seen in Europe during our holiday there in 1990. I had realised that in the cool mountain climate of the Granite Belt I would be able to grow many of the Northern Hemisphere flowers I had so greatly admired in Europe.
Amongst the flowers I sowed in the field were the red Flanders Poppies. My powers of observation came into play and I noted that it took sixteen weeks from when the poppy seed was sown for the plant to reach flowering. I recognised that it would be possible to germinate the poppy seedlings to time the flowering to begin mid October and continue on to the end of November.
Flanders poppies
This was an important discovery, for it led me to the startling conclusion that no where else in the Southern Hemisphere was there such a grouping of Flanders battlefield place names as the Granite Belt possessed and a cool mountain climate that would allow the poppies to bloom for 11th November, Armistice Day.
In a report I wrote for the Southern Down Tourist Association I proposed the creation of a memorial drive where people along the route could grow poppies in their gardens or fields to create a tourist attraction. This route already existed as a road linking the soldier settlements of Amiens, Messines, Bapaume, Passchendaele, Bullecourt, Pozieres and Fleurbaix. I envisaged motorists and school groups touring the area each November.
A meeting of tourist operators and business people from the northern – soldier settlement end of the district met to discuss the proposal and the Stanthorpe Border Post carried the story as a front-page feature. The enthusiasm was contagious. The RSL suggested placing seven memorial crosses on the drive to mark each district, with each cross to carry a plaque detailing the history of that particular battle. Furthermore it was suggested that the school children at Amiens and Pozieres might undertake the planting and management of poppies growing in garden beds under the crosses. The President of the Lion’s Club announced that the club would consider beautifying a public picnic ground with the poppies. Tony Evans, of Evan’s Seedlings at Amiens offered to purchase bulk poppy seed for distribution and to plant an acre of ground at the front of their business with the poppies. His father had served in France and been one of the original diggers to receive land at Amiens. I was photographed for the newspaper story standing with Mr. and Mrs. Evans. I came home from that meeting on a high!
Then the protesters, like storm clouds, gathered!
Tony Evans was the first to feel the brunt of rural disapproval. Antagonistic farmers told him they would no longer buy their vegetable seedlings from him if he persisted in supporting the proposal to grow poppies along the memorial drive. Furthermore they would sue him personally if any poppies appeared as weeds amongst their crops. Tony withdrew his offer to purchase seed and plant an acre of ground with poppies. Suddenly I found myself being treated like a pariah for threatening the farmers of the district with a weed invasion. The Stanthorpe Shire Council banned the planting of poppies on all district roads.
Some years previously, while still living at Dalby and working my farm there, I had undertaken a plant propagation course at the Gatton Agricultural College. I knew that the poppy was unlikely to spread and become a weed nuisance. As I explained to friends, Cobbler Pegs are known as the Farmer’s Friend because their seeds cling to clothes and are transferred to other sites.
The seed heads of both the golden coreopsis and the pink, mauve and white cosmos are eaten by the rosella parrots, which also being a fruit eating bird, distribute the seed via their droppings to vineyards and orchards.
Wildflowers or weeds
Cobbler Pegs – (Beggars ticks, sticktights, pitchforks, Bidens pilosa) is a strong growing annual weed producing an enormous amount of seed, which when mature firmly attaches to clothing, animal hair or wool.
Golden coreopsis – (Tickseed, fam. Compositae) Coreopsis grandiflora Commonly grown as annuals, the seed may be scattered in spring or autumn into the garden where the soil has been cultivated. Keep moist. Thin to about 20 cm apart. Plants will carry over and become a perennial.
Cosmos – (fam. Compositae) Cosmos pipinnatus Cosmos prefer sandy soil. Sow spring to mid-summer in seedbeds or where plants are to grow in a group of two or three about 45cm apart. Like tomatoes, Cosmos are a plant that likes to be planted deeply.
In contrast, the poppy capsule is bitter and no bird eats the seed head. The capsules harden and the fine black seed drops out like pepper below the plant. In years gone by the poppy spread with mankind right around the Mediterranean Sea and across Europe from Russia to Great Britain. Man, with bags of wheat seed, probably carried it across the English Channel, as the poppy was a weed of wheat fields. I believed the only way the poppy could spread on the Granite Belt would be in soil attached to a gardening tool or a farming implement, as wheat is not a crop grown in the region. The other factor that antagonists chose to overlook was that unlike the perennial coreopsis, the poppies require cultivated soil to germinate and would not survive in bushland. As I repeatedly explained, the battlefields of Flanders had originally been wheat fields. Wheat wasn’t planted during the war, but the soil was disturbed by troops digging trenches, grave digging and shelling, which had the effect of providing cultivated soil. And then in the horrible wet conditions of Flanders, the poppies germinated and became known to the Allied Forces as the Flanders Poppies. End of extract.
In 2009 a booklet called WILDFLOWERS of the Granite Belt was published by the Stanthorpe Rare Wildflower Consortium.
Wildflower book
You may seek further information regarding this publication from the Southern Downs Regional Council www.southerndowns.qld.gov.au The booklet is selling for $4.50 at venues like the Stanthorpe Tourist Information Centre.
It is interesting to note that although Flanders poppies had been planted in the gardens of the soldier settlement homes they had never escaped from these gardens to become a weed nuisance.
It is also of note that by growing the Flanders poppies on our farm for the past seventeen years I have proved that these wildflowers would not spread from my garden to become a weed nuisance.
So, the Flanders poppies do not appear as one of the weeds displayed in WILDFLOWERS of the Granite Belt.
The most prominent flowering weed of the Granite Belt during the autumn months are the beautiful Cosmos. Ever since I was a small child I have loved the colours of these plants and if I were to choose my favourite colour it must be the deep pink cerise, which is one of the colours of the cosmos.
Autumn cosmos
In every garden I have ever cultivated I have planted the cosmos. They are incredibly easy to grow and will self-seed profusely to appear the next year as volunteer plants in your garden. These flowers are a native plant of Mexico and provided a colourful background in the Whoopee Golberg movie The Colour Purple.
They were introduced to the Granite Belt as a garden annual. What then happened was that the Eastern Rosella Parrot, which is also a fruit eating parrot, relished the drying seed heads of the Cosmos. After eating the flower heads the parrots flew off to feast on plums, apricots and grapes. They dropped seed wherever they feasted and promptly the self-sown seedlings of the cosmos appeared in the fruit orchards.
Cosmos at the front of Das Helwig Haus
In my book Wildflowers, wilderness and wine I mention Sabine, a German wwoofer, who worked in the spring months to transplant seedlings to create this display of cosmos at the front of Das Helwig Haus. Each year now the seedlings appear here in the spring and continuously flower until the frosts appear at the end of April.
Patches hunting Rosella parrots
I also discovered that my black and white cat, Patches, thought I had grown these cosmos to make it easier for her to stalk the Eastern Rosella parrots.
Patches adopted me in 2005 and is featured in my free e-books available for you to download on this site and on http://fayhelwigauthor.com and also on http://www.australia-book.com.au These e-books are free for you to share with other cat lovers. Enjoy!
Book cover
