Remembrance day is a day to pause and reflect on the sacrifice of our fallen diggers, their families and loved ones. It’s also a time to be thankful for the men and women serving today to ensure our freedom and way of life here in Australia can be preserved and embraced by future generations.

The Flanders poppy is the traditional flower used for remembrance, along with rosemary. In Turkey, at ANZAC Cove, rosemary grows in hedges around each battle site and graveyard, along with blue irises and lavender. The poppies grew in profusion in Flanders, France in the disturbed earth of the battlefields and cemeteries where war casualties were buried. It has since become a symbol of remembrance.

In Flanders Fields - John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

This year I was asked to provide a wreath for a service to be held in western Sydney, and was happy to oblige! Although I could not find Flanders poppies, I was able to find the next best thing - bright red gerberas with black centres. Coupled with ‘After Dark’, “Kangaroo Paw’ and ‘Geraldton Wax’ (all Australian natives), the wreath evolved into a beautiful ‘Australian’ representation of the the remembrance day tradition. I hope you like the photos, and I hope you like the wreath. Most of all, I hope you too will remember our fallen comrades- sons, fathers, uncles, brothers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers and great-great grandfathers (!!) on the 11th November, 2011 - and every year to come.