Meet the team behind Birmingham city centre’s iconic flower displays

Close to the border of Birmingham, in the shadows of Lickey Hills, Darren Share shows an array of flowers growing in the blistering heat. It is busy with colour and life. There are begonias in every shade in crates, petunias and verbenas competing for best in show.

“Everything here is useful,” says Mr Share, assistant director of Street Scene at Birmingham city council.

“I didn’t realise how popular our flowers would be during the Commonwealth Games.” Popular is certainly underselling it.

Cofton Nursery, a little known, council-run nursery in Rednal is where you will find the horticulturists behind the great displays of flowers across the city centre.

The flowers you walk past down Colmore Row, across Centenary Square, and even some of the ‘flower towers’ dotted around Birmingham’s suburbs, are all the work of the nursery.

Some of the flowers are grown at their two sister sites – Kings Heath Park and Coleshill Nursery – unusual for a local authority.

What is so remarkable about the public flower displays in Birmingham?

“Most flower arrangements for local authorities are done out-of-house with private contracts. Not us, all of our lovely flowers are planted by us for the local community,” says Mr Share.

Each flower tower contains approximately 600 to 800 flowers. A thousand units of flower towers costs around £210,000, Mr Share tells the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS). “We’ve had people phoning us and asking if they could put a flower tower down their local street,” he says.

A missed detail of the flowers on display is how each flower reflects the Commonwealth Games colour palette, and do well to spruce up parts of the city in a cost-effective manner.

How long did it take to put the flower arrangements together in time for the Commonwealth Games?

“Around two years,” Mr Share says. “It took a lot of planning, especially with the heatwave. Thankfully it hasn’t affected our water supply or the flowers.”

One of the main attractions in the city is the council’s Chelsea Flower show arrangement, with iconic landmarks made from more than 3,000 flowers, willow, steel, and wood.

It won a gold medal – the tenth year in a row – and is still on display in the grounds of Birmingham Cathedral at the corner of Colmore Row and Temple Street West.

There’s good news too. The displays will last until the end September, before a new cycle of bulbs will be planted. “We’ll have some winter flowers to display across the city – it won’t be bare!” says Mr Share.

What does Birmingham City Council really think about the flower displays?

Councillor Majid Mahmood, cabinet member for environment at Birmingham city council, said: “These flower towers and the work by our amazing Street Scene team have made Birmingham look fantastic and full of energy for our Commonwealth Games.”

“I’m looking forward to seeing what other plants the team offers and how they can make our city look wonderful in the upcoming autumn and winter months.”

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