Floral Clock

For our 150th anniversary, the Garden honors our Victorian and St. Louis roots with the introduction of our first-ever floral clock! The clock, located along the central reflecting pools, will measure 20 feet across and will feature a working cuckoo chirping every quarter hour.

It will be powered by solar offsets from panels installed in the Kemper Center for Home Gardening.

Plant material will be changed out seasonally over the course of the temporary display. The summer design features a traditional celestial theme with moon (white, dark purple) and sun (chartreuse-yellow)—look for Hemigraphis, Begonias, Alternanthera and Dichondra. Alternanthera has also been used in the clock’s Roman numerals, and dichondra in the moving clock hands. Spring plantings featured cool-season, low-growing crops, such as pansies (Viola), ornamental kale (Brassica), and alyssum (Lobularia).

In keeping with floral clock tradition, the numerals on the bottom half of the clock are upside down and the Roman numeral 4 is represented IIII, balancing the VIII opposite. The world’s oldest floral clock was established in 1903 in Edinburgh, Scotland.

At the 1904 World’s Fair, St. Louis displayed the world’s largest floral clock in Forest Park.

Support for the floral clock provided by Mr. and Mrs. William R. Orthwein, Jr.