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Great British Garden
Garden designer Sarah Price developed the design for the Great British Garden following the outline brief set by Rachel Read and Hannah Clegg, two amateur horticulturalists and winners of a public voted competition to design the garden. The competition, run in partnership with the Royal Horticultural Society and the Olympic Delivery Authority, invited entrants to submit ideas for a 1,000 square metre space to demonstrate the unique qualities of a British domestic garden. Eleven year old Hannah Clegg won the young people’s section of the competition, with Rachel Read winning in the adult category.
The design sought to integrate existing trees and a series of distinct areas with broad drifts of textural ornamental grasses including Indian grass and Chinese silvergrass and long flowering perennials such as Purple loosestrife and Culver's root. Blocks of riparian or marginal planting including Hemp agrimony, Meadowsweet and Yellow flag, edge the frog pond to the south of the gardens with the colour themed planting to the north.
The Garden is designed to take visitors on a journey of discovery through three gardens themed on the colours of Olympic medals: bronze, silver and gold. The bronze section features reds, oranges and other fiery tones; the silver section features a human sized sundial set within an area of silver coloured paving; and in the gold section, spiral planting leads visitors to a stately oak tree.
During the Games, archways that link the sections of the Great British Garden together were covered with good luck messages for athletes which visitors had threaded into the foliage.
Memories Tree
The Memories Tree Oak in The Great British Gardens was planted as a mature tree for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and is a focal point in this quiet and contemplative area of the Park. The tree is an English Oak (Quercus robur) and came from Hilliers Nurseries in Hampshire. This is a much loved tree which was chosen as the tree to remember all those who have lost their lives and for whom the London 2012 Games or Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is held as a special place.
The Memories Tree is one of four English Oaks planted in the Great British Garden, the others being Coubertin Oaks grown from acorns originating from the original Coubertin Oak in Much Wenlock, Shropshire, the birthplace of the Paralympic movement.
Plant species
Bronze
Allium bulgaricum - Bulgarian honey garlic
Allium sphaerocephalon - Round-headed leek
Anthriscus sylvestris 'Ravenswing' - Cow parsley 'Ravenswing'
Bupleurum perfoliatum 'Bronze Form'
Carex testacea - Orange New Zealand sedge
Deschampsia cespitosa 'Bronze Veil' - Tufted hair grass 'Bronze Veil'
Deschampsia cespitosa 'Golden Dew' - Tufted hair grass 'Goldtau'
Dianthus carthusianorum - German pink
Digitalis ferrunginea - Rusty foxglove
Panicum virgatum 'Rehbraun' - Switch grass 'Rehbraun'
Rosa 'Geranium' - Rosa 'Geranium
Sanguisorba officinalis 'Tanna' - Burnet 'Tanna'
Sanguisorba tenuifolia 'Purpurea' - Slender-leaved burnet 'Purpurea'
Stipa calamagrostis - Rough feather grass
Trifolium repens 'William' - White clover 'William'
Silver
Allium bulgaricum - Bulgarian honey garlic
Anemone hybrida 'Andrea Atkinson' - Japanese anemone 'Andrea Atkinson'
Cenolophium denudatum - Baltic parsley
Deschampsia cespitosa 'Golden Dew' - Tufted hair grass 'Goldtau'
Digitalis purpurea 'Alba' - White-flowered foxglove
Sesleria autumnalis - Autumn moor-grass
Gold
Amsonia hubrichtii - Arkansas bluestar
Anthemis tinctoria 'E.C.Buxton' - Dyer's chamomile
Asphodeline liburnica - Liburne asphodel
Bupleurum perfoliatum 'Bronze Form'
Deschampsia cespitosa 'Gold Veil' - Tufted hair grass 'Goldschleier'
Deschampsia cespitosa 'Golden Dew' - Tufted hair grass 'Goldtau'
Dianthus carthusianorum - German pink
Eremurus stenophyllus - Narrow-leaved foxtail lily
Inula magnifica 'Sonnenstrahl'
Panicum virgatum 'Rehbraun' - Switch grass 'Rehbraun'
Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Taurus' - Red bistort
Senecio polyodon - Pink ragwort
Stachys officinalis 'Hummelo' - Betony 'Hummelo'
Stachys officinalis 'Rosea' - Betony 'Rosea'
Stipa gigantea - Golden oats