THE FLORAL CLOCK

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19578, 26 August 1933, Page 11

THE FLORAL CLOCK

Every visitor to Edinburgh is struck with the beauty of the floral arrangements in Princes street gardens, and the summer display this year is one of the most tasteful that can be remembered. But the visitor is particularly impressed with the floral clock (says the “Weekly Scotsman”). Edinburgh claims to have installed the first floral clock; Mr M’Hattie, who was then the City gardener originating the idea in 1903. Since then it has been copied in various parts of the globe, and it is a tribute to the Edinburgh workmanship that the mechanical contrivances originated in Edinburgh have been supplied by the same firm for floral clocks at Bridlington, South Sea, two parks in Liverpool and the Zoo gardens at Sydney in Australia. The Princes street clock mechanism is in the base of the Allan Ramsay monument, and the motion is conveyed to the dial works below the surface of the soil by wires encased in tubes.

The “hands” of the clock hold many plants embedded in moss, and the clock face and its surroundings are a masterpiece of carpet-bedding. When it is known that from 12,000 to 14,000 plants are separately arranged in the design, some idea can be formed of the painstaking work undertaken by Mr John T. Jeffrey, the present City Gardener, and his staff. A feature of the clock is that the hours are announced by a “cuckoo” call.