A more-than-a-century-old European beech tree located in a Vancouver Island park grew from seeds obtained in Flanders Fields, likely during the First World War, and volunteers would like to know how they got there. Staff who previously worked at Dominion Brook Park in North Saanich, B.C., kept meticulous records of each plant, according to Nancy Johnson, president of the Friends of Dominion Brook Park Society.
The tree in question was planted in 1922 with seeds from Flanders Fields, an area associated with First World War battles in Belgium, and immortalized in the poem In Flanders Fields by Lt.-Col. John McCrae. “It would be very interesting … to know how those seeds actually came to North Saanich, who that person was,” Johnson said on CBC's On The Island.
The park was started in 1912 by the federal government as an experimental farm to discover what plants and livestock would thrive in the Western climate, said Johnson. “Pretty much anything you could think of was brought in and planted to see whether it would thrive in our microclimate here,” she said.
She said volunteers are aware of a man who worked on the property around 1913, then went to war, and returned to work on the farm again in 1922. But they are hoping someone knows for certain. “It would be amazing if someone out there has some recollection of a grandfather or an uncle talking about this,” Johnson said.
There are a number of trees on Shelbourne Street in Saanich with the same heritage.
When the First World War broke out, the Victoria area had B.C.'s highest rate of men who volunteered to go to war, according to Jenny Seeman, president of the Victoria Historical Society. In Saanich, more than 800 men joined the war effort, she said. Seeman says it is also possible that one of the many women who served abroad as nurses during the war could have brought the seeds back. Does anyone know who may have brought back the seeds?
