June 2023 – in colour, in nature
The flowers around the base of the south wall
Before the final transformation of the interior space, I wanted to make sure that as much “in colour” as possible could also find its way beyond the walls of the Twin Dome and out into the surrounding playing fields. In the months leading up to the Spring we’d had an understanding with the university grounds team that an area of turf around the building would be lifted and then seeded with a well chosen mix of wild flowers and grasses. Not a special area of knowledge for me but luckily I had some clever horticulturalists to turn to.
I was keeping my fingers crossed that some warm April days might arrive early in the month and so give us a chance to get going with that outer zone of “in colour”. As it turned out we waited and waited only to watch days tick by in what would prove to be the coldest month of April in the century so far – or so I believe. During that month it became ever clearer that by the Summer Solstice – our opening day of “in colour” – there really would be very little to see in terms of colour and wild flowers around the old observatory. Maybe a few green shoots in a wide expanse of soil. It was obvious that we needed a plan B.
After all the options were considered, and with the help John Reid and his University grounds team, we ended up with a much smaller area of flower coverage but a dramatic and colourful one none the less. Rather than waiting for wild flowers to emerge two months after our audience had gone home, we opted for ready-to-plant flowers that would all be brought on in greenhouses. They would be planted in the semi-circular area around the curved base of the south facing wall and underneath the new colour code that replaced the Neon.
Just before the planting I was given a tour of the greenhouses by John Reid – I was really keen to see what was coming to the Twin Dome and to the project. There was a seemingly endless selection of some that I recognised – Carnations, Campanulas, Marigolds and Lupins and some that I didn’t – Crocosmia, Russian Sage, Autumn Sage and a blue spiky Allium (not the actual name but how they appeared to me). If I were to compare the visit to say a weekend trip to a garden centre, it was as if I’d arrived with a flatbed lorry on a special deal day of “buy one get a hundred free”. Happy days.