Ventnor Botanic Friends

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16th June 2018 By Colin Smith

Battlefield to Butterflies

We were delighted to receive an invitation from the Royal Parks Guild for our apprentice gardeners to take part in the creation of this exhibition project at Osborne House.

During the unveiling ceremony on 12 June one of our apprentices, George Tyler, joined with two Osborne House trainees, Catherine Mawdesley and Rose Greves, to read a poem by the Isle of Wight poet, David Thornton.  George worked on the landscaping and planting of the area with children from The Bay CE Primary School in Sandown.

The new area in the Walled Garden entitled ‘Battlefield to Butterflies’ commemorates the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War and is in remembrance of the garden and ground staff who worked in the Royal Parks and died in the war.  The gardens at Osborne House were part of the Royal Parks at that time.

 

Battlefields to Butterflies

The battlefields of World War One,
A shell-shocked no man’s land,
Where Death walked through the trenches,
And took each soldiers hand.

A battered, shattered, hostile land,
Of sorrow, pain and fear,
And prayers that soon the war would end,
Perhaps by Spring next year.

Then in this muddy battlefield,
A butterfly appears,
Wings of white, with bright red tips
Of blood wept through the years.

It flits across the British trenches,
Over no man’s land,
And rests upon a Gatling gun,
Close to a German’s hand.

The soldier pauses for a while,
To gaze upon this sight,
This fragile beauty fills his heart,
With joy far from the fight.

And now so many years have passed,
In time the land has healed,
For seeds of peace have been released,
Across the battlefield.

Poppies grow where blood was shed,
And dance against blue skies,
Now nature’s forces are deployed,
Six million butterflies.

Filed Under: News

A Forum to share experiences

The Friends of Botanic Gardens Forum (FBGF) of which VBGFS is a member, was set up in September 2019 to encourage information exchange between Friends groups around the UK. 

Although the groups operate within different financial and management structures, there is much to be gained by sharing experiences and ideas for activities and fund-raising, and much else.

If you enjoy reading about gardens and looking at lovely pictures, and are interested in what is happening at Botanic Gardens around the country, then head to their website https://fbgf.org to see the Gallery and read the Newsletters.

Rosemary Stewart was our representative from the beginning but relinquished the role to Val Pitts in 2022.  In their Summer 2022 newsletter, Rosemary writes her valedictory article about how she became involved at Ventnor. She made a number of other interesting contributions to earlier editions, including one about the hopyard in November 2020. As you can imagine with Rosemary, all are well worth reading.

You can read Rosemary’s article here.

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Fakenham Farm, Eddington Road, PO35 5TN Tel: 07977 550050
10% Discount on plants sales for Members of the VBG Friends’ Society

 



Caring for the Island’s parks, gardens & designed landscapes.

Quick Links You can find quick links to other sites of botanical interest here. The British Hosta and Hemerocallis Society . Save the art gallery at Edinburgh Royal Botanic Gardens .   … Read More ...

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