Description:
Bristol University Botanic Garden hosts Olympic Park planting design talk
Visitors to this summer’s Olympic Games enjoyed spending time in the stunning Olympic Park featuring 25 acres of perennial and annual meadows which could prove to be viable alternatives to traditional bedding in public parks. This November the man responsible, Professor Nigel Dunnett will visit the University of Bristol Botanic Garden to explain the design and preparation of the Olympic Park landscape.
Professor Dunnett, who is Professor of Planting Design and Vegetation Technology and Director of The Green Roof Centre, University of Sheffield, manages research programmes into sustainable landscape planting and green roof development; he is active in design and consultancy, and writes widely for various horticultural and gardening publications.
He believes that many of the environmental problems facing cities can be traced back to a disconnection with nature, vegetation and green and that a partial response to the issues facing populations as a result of our changing and unpredictable climate is to revegetate and green our cities. His work concentrates on innovative approaches to planting design and ways of integrating ecology and horticulture to achieve low-input, dynamic, diverse, ecologically-tuned, designed landscapes, at small and large scale.
Highlights of the Olympic Park planting were the incorporation of Pictorial Meadows Seeds, created by Professor Dunnett. Visitors will have seen both native and non-native plants including Cornflowers, Corn Marigold hybrids, Star of the Veld and Pot Marigolds.
Professor Dunnett will be giving his talk Planting the Olympic Park in Room B75 at the School of Biological Sciences in Woodland Road at 7.30PM on Thursday 15 November. He will talk about the design and preparation of the Olympic Park including how unique factors of the Pictorial Meadows Seeds overcome problems often associated with creating ‘traditional’ wild flower meadows from seed, such as unreliable germination, short flowering season and untidy appearance.
Admission is free to Friends of the University of Bristol Botanic Garden while visitors will be asked to make a £5 donation. Pre-booking is not required.
Visitors to the Botanic Garden in November can enjoy learning about the wildflower meadow project being developed with the Friends of the Downs and the Avon Gorge. This display forms part of the garden’s Local Flora and Rare Natives Collection; it replicates the local Clifton-Durdham Down calcareous meadow habitat.
Other delights this month include the Botanic Garden’s display of terrestrial orchids, including Autumn Ladies Tresses and Bee Orchids, which the garden has been granted special permission to collect.
Throughout November the Botanic Garden will be open Monday to Friday, 10AM to 4PM, or dusk if earlier. The Welcome Lodge will be closed but information leaflets will be available and a donation from non-Friends is requested.
For further information visit www.bristol.ac.uk/botanic-garden.
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