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Plants brightly flourish on many London Tube stations often in the face of adversity. Thirty stations are so proud of their efforts that they have entered London Underground’s very own flower competition, which is being judged this week.
Pippa Greenwood of BBC’s Gardener’s Questiontime and the Daily Mirror will be consulting with the other judges who are senior staff and retired staff of London Transport with horticultural expertise. Stations included range from Hatton Cross in the west to Elm Park in the east, and from Chesham in the north to Morden in the south.
Underground stations which Pippa has elected to visit are mainly in central London, where she can offer advice and suggestions to staff whose gardens are afflicted most by adverse conditions. Raised beds and hanging baskets quickly become dry, yet watering has to be carried out entirely by hand. And trains rush past every few minutes, sometimes only a few feet away.
Pippa Greenwood says: "I was brought up in London, and have always enjoyed travelling by Tube. It’s a great pleasure to be involved with the Station Gardens competition, as these flowers look really wonderful. The staff are very committed to the self imposed task, which brings splashes of natural colour into Tube traveller’s journeys."
