A giant 15-ton ice cube will slowly melt during the Chelsea Flower Show to highlight the issue of global warming.
The 10-foot wide and tall cube, called The Plantman’s Ice Garden, will melt slowly during the five-day show as a symbolic representation of climate change.
The creation is one of several centrepieces for this year’s event with a strong element of social commentary, which also includes a carbon-neutral garden cabin and a garden designed to celebrate prisoner rehabilitation.
Its designer, John Warland, told the Daily Mail it will “raise awareness of the scale of permafrost loss in the Arctic regions”.
Around 28 trillion tonnes of ice have disappeared from the surface of the planet since 1994 and all-summer ice is scheduled to disappear within the next 20 years.
Mr Warland said: “It’s an installation to raise awareness of the scale of permafrost loss in the Arctic regions which will have this huge carbon release.”
At the centre of the ice block are Silene seeds - and a Doomsday Clock which serves as a “reminder of the perils that must be addressed if humanity is to secure its survival on Earth.”
The installation is currently being made in an industrial facility in Wimbledon, where it needs constant agitation to keep the ice clear.
The RHS Chelsea Flower show runs from Tuesday, May 24, until Saturday, May 28.
A floral sculptural portrait of the Queen will be among the tributes to the monarch in celebration of her Platinum Jubilee at this year’s event.
The Queen has been the Royal Horticultural Society’s royal patron since 1952 and was a regular visitor to the show with her parents as a child.
The gardening extravaganza is returning to its May dates for the first time this month since the pandemic.
