Culture & society
By: Yulia Kovanova, Blake Ewing, Lorienne Whittle & Graham Stone
Interdisciplinary Workshop Outcome

The concept of the Flower Clock departed from the idea of a “messy” garden. Perfectly manicured lawns and meticulously arranged garden spaces are often an aesthetic that is socially aspired to. However, it is the “messy” garden – the garden where different elements of the ecosystem can intermingle on their own terms – which offers space for life to thrive in the round. A messy garden welcomes a wider array of non-human visitors, from beetles and bees to birds and hedgehogs.

The wide range of flowering plants in the messy garden can act as temporal signifiers, as the emergence of flowers announce the plant’s readiness for their pollinating partners. Unlike the traditional flower calendar, which advises the month when it might be best to plant or observe different types of flowers, the Flower Clock looks at the changes revealed when, because of climate change, flowers bloom at atypical times. When the temperature has been unseasonably warm, for example, plants may flower earlier than expected – signifying their readiness for pollination or offering fruits for our avian and insect kin and this will be reflected in the colours of the garden itself. It is this relationship between climate, plants and wildlife that is of such importance because changes in flower appearance can affect the entire ecosystem of which it is part.