Gardeners create beautiful living wall inspired by ball’s Where The Wild Things Are theme

If you’ve passed through Green Templeton College’s Lankester Quad in recent days you may have noticed a new addition to the landscape: a beautiful living wall.

The eye-catching burst of lush plants and colour was created by Head Gardener Michael Pirie and Assistant Gardener Carolyn Serra, after the Green Templeton Ball Committee 2019 first floated the idea of a living wall that complemented this year’s ball theme, Where the Wild Things Are.

In March, the committee contacted Michael to ask if a living wall could be built that reflected the wonderfully vibrant world imagined by author Maurice Sendak in his classic 1963 children’s picture book.

Michael and Carolyn were inspired by Sendak’s illustrations of animals dangling from tree branches, surrounded by luscious foliage, and began creating a jungle-esque wall filled with draping plants and floral displays.

The base of the structure was crafted from plywood, with paving grids slotted together to keep the contents in place. A mixture of compost and grit was used to ensure the wall wouldn’t be too heavy or get too waterlogged.

To bring the magic of the jungle to Green Templeton, the winding grasses forming the tree trunk-like structure at the centre of the wall are Ophiopogen planiscarpus ‘Nigrescens’, surrounded by Aglaomorpha cor ferns.

Woven throughout are trailing plants Calibrachoa, Alyssum ‘Wonder White’, Lobelia ‘Cobalt Blue’, and Herniaria glabra.

Parsley and chamomile were dotted around the wall to provide a wonderful scent on a sunny day, while the ball committee added their own carnations for extra vibrancy and colour.

The wall has been a popular spot for photography, with students cocooned by greenery as they pose for pictures, as if transported into Sendak’s magical world. It will be situated in Lankester Quad throughout the summer.

You may also like to view Michael and Carolyn’s stunning Garden of Ancient Greece in the Radcliffe Observatory gardens opposite the greenhouse, which contains allusions to the world of classical antiquity and the architecture of our iconic observatory.