The beautiful wildflower meadows of the Olympic park were one of its most talked about features.
And today their creator Nigel Dunnett said he hopes to bring even more joy to Stratford residents and visitors when the site reopens next year as the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. He is creating more meadows there and working on existing ones to ensure they can be easily maintained.
Mr Dunnett said the emotional reactions of visitors during the Games showed why cities should have more wild areas.
He also revealed his entry for this year’s Chelsea Flower Show — a rooftop garden set against the London skyline. The RBC Blue Water Roof Garden includes chimney pots and air vents to make it feel like it is on top of a building even though it is at ground level.
It explores the theme of “skyrise greening” and is the first example of a full “living roof” at Chelsea Flower Show. It will feature a shelter and provide habitats and food for insects and other wildlife, including a wetland aerated by a spring. Mr Dunnett, 50, said he hopes to show the huge amount of space that is wasted on rooftops and how it can be turned into a wildlife paradise. The professor of planting design and vegetation technology at Sheffield University said the response to his work at the Olympic park was “astonishing”. He added: “A lot of people were in tears they were so happy and emotional, I was completely overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of people who were so moved by it.
“It convinced me that we need more of that around where we live, not just in gardens but in parks and public spaces. It’s very positive and it encourages lots of happy emotions for people with all the bees, butterflies and colours around them.”
The gold meadows surrounding the Olympic stadium will not remain because they use flowers from outside the UK. But Mr Dunnett said he has been commissioned to create even more meadows on the site, as well as integrating wild flowers into new pleasure gardens. “The idea is to keep the meadows there, it’s the thing that most people loved when they saw it. But now we have to make it work like a normal public park,” he added.
