Revive Your Poppies!
Nine years ago on November 11th, ESAC volunteers and staff placed over 3000 ceramic poppies around the Veterans’ Memorial overlooking the Mobile Bay on the Fairhope bluff. This project honored American veterans who had made the ultimate sacrifice when serving in our armed forces over the years.
Over 200 volunteers worked for 10 months to make the poppies. The poppies were based on an exhibit at the Tower of London the previous year, where nearly 1,000,000 poppies honored British soldiers who lost their lives during World War I.
Our poppies were sold after the event, and about $35,000 was donated to local veterans’ organizations. Today you can still see some of the poppies in gardens around town, but sadly, many have been chipped or broken due to exposure to the weather for so long.
However, there is an easy way to revive your poppies! You will need spray paint (Banner Red from Krylon), black enamel paint and a sponge brush, super glue, and coarse sandpaper (See photo below).
Begin by moving the poppies to an area where you don’t mind getting red paint on the grass. If you wish, use coarse sandpaper to sand the stems. Then was lthe flowers thoroughly so that no dirt will get into the paint. If there are some broken pieces, you can try glueing them together and hold with masking tape until set. Don’t worry about chips to the edges, they will be covered by the paint, and not noticeable.
Spray the flowers all over with red paint, multiple coats, covering heavily. Allow to dry, which doesn’t take long. Then dip the sponge brush in the black paint and carefully repaint the center nut and screw. If you have a yellow center, you can get some yellow paint or just cover with black.
The poppies below are the ones I did, and you hardly notice the breaks or chips unless you look closely. Hopefully this will revive your poppies for another 9 years!
Gaye Lindsey
Comments are closed.