War ... and Peace? xx
Flowers are often the peacemakers but they have a strong
link with war too.
If you are an eight year old attending the Findern
primary school in Derbyshire it is likely that you know more than most about
how war can fuel an explosion of flowers across the world. This is because your
school emblem is the Findern flower, a variety of narcissus that Sir Geoffery
de Fynderne brought back with him from the crusades. Sir Geoffery may well have
gathered more exotic treasures too, such as spices, jewels, or even drugs, but
today it is the humble narcissus that still survives and bobs its head by the
village green. Over the course of many hundreds of years flower varieties, like
the narcissus, have been captured as bounty from wars in far off lands.
Including by Pharoh Thutmosis I, who was purloining irises from Syria long
before Sir Geoffrey ever thought of venturing into the Holy Lands. Nowadays the
narcissus’s sweet fragrance is synonymous with sharp spring mornings and
frost-edged fields dotted with cotton wool lambs. But in the lingering richness
that lies at the heart of its heady perfume we may still catch a whisper of
half forgotten tales of Arabian Nights.
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