It was the WWII Digging for Victory Campaign which suddenly came to mind as my wife Jenny and I, joined hundreds of other gardening enthusiasts observing a two-minutes silence at noon on the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day.
We were all stood in the popular Floral Marquee packed with dazzling displays from sixty of the region’s finest nurseries on the opening day of The Royal Horticultural Society’s Malvern Spring Festival.
It is held annually against the magnificent backdrop of the wooded and picturesque Malvern Hills that rise up behind the showground.
I guess it was spotting Ann Morgan from Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants in Hampshire sporting a patriotic bowler hat with a Union Jack flag on top that got me wondering if all flower production was stopped in 1939 to make way for the growing of vegetables on every available space across the land.
And yes, I discovered that flowers were grown during World War II, although their cultivation was heavily restricted in many areas due to the prioritization of food production.
While some flowers were grown for medicinal purposes and to bring a sense of normalcy during the war, their acreage was limited, and transportation was severely restricted.
Without the additional food the campaign produced it is possible that the U Boat offensive that blockaded Britain from her food imports could have starved the British nation into submission.
The success of Dig for Victory was greater than just providing much needed additional food, Dig for Victory freed up much needed space on shipping to carry the weapons, munitions and raw materials that were so vital to keeping the armed forces supplied.
So self sufficiency again sprung to mind just a few paces away when I came upon Kate Hirst from Worcestershire and her stunning display of all British grown flowers.
She was representing Flowers from the Farm which champions a financially and environmentally sustainable local cut flower industry.
Flowers from the Farm is the UK’s leading professional trade association for independent flower growers representing a network of over one thousand members nationwide.
Kate explained that the association was dedicated to advancing agroecological growing practices that prioritise both environmental and financial responsibility.
My thoughts suddenly flashed back to the unforgettable day that Jenny and I toured the world’s largest flower market in Aalsmeer just outside Amsterdam where millions of flowers from all over the world are traded daily and arrive in Britain in refrigerated vehicles.
The 80th anniversary of VE Day again became a topic for conversation when we took our seats in The Kitchen Garden Theatre after lunch for a Gardeners’ Question Time session with show judge Jon Wheatley and garden designer Paul Harvey Brooks.
Jon, a garden designer and grower who has won many RHS gold medals, told how both his uncles had been evacuated from Dunkirk and had eventually returned to their father’s farm in Bristol.
But what made my ears really prick up was his later remark, after answering a number of questions, was that the UK had no overall strategy for horticulture and the really important part it played in the country’s sustainable economy and that gardening had long since disappeared from school curriculums.
I was then remembering back to the early 1950s when gardening for boys and home economics for girls were both part of the curriculum at my Secondary Modern School in the Victorian town of Clevedon across the Severn Estuary in North Somerset.
Yes, those were far off days indeed, but then of course I remembered that the RHS Malvern Spring Show has its own School Garden Challenge specifically aimed at promoting the joys of gardening to children and young adults.
Here eight groups across three counties took on the task of creating a garden based on an Around the World theme supported at every step not only by their teachers, but also by RHA Malvern’s own School Garden Challenge Champion and former Blue Peter Gardener Chris Collins.
