Giant flower 'carpet' created from 330,000 blooms

More than 330,000 dahlias have been hand-laid by volunteers to create an enormous floral "carpet" in the centre of Bradford.

Work on the 95ft (29m) hexagonal-shaped public artwork in Centenary Square began at 06:00 BST on Thursday before officially opening in the afternoon.

Local artist Shiraaz Ali used the city's textile heritage and multicultural population as the inspiration for his design.

The flowers were grown and supplied by the non-profit Tapis de fleurs de Bruxelles which has run the original Flower Carpet event in Belgium since the 1970s.

Ali spent time researching at the Bradford Industrial Museum as well as going to the Belgian capital to see its carpet, which is created once every two years.

He said: "The design has been a wonderful process, starting at the museum, which explores Bradford's heritage and how the city has developed over time, and what makes it what it is today in 2026.

"The design is really geared at looking at the origin of Bradford and how it has developed as a textile city and its history, and its people who've made all the textiles. Thousands of people."

He said the work was designed to be "inclusive and accessible" and to represent the city as a whole and "its unity".

Molly Rigg is from the Bradford Culture Company, a charity set up to deliver last year's City of Culture arts programme and continue its legacy.

The group has been working with Ali on the flower carpet project.

She said: "We had a site visit (Brussels) in June. From there to now is quite speedy how we've worked at it.

"But because we're working with the Brussels tech team they have a lot of experience.

"They've really helped us hit all the markers and help us deliver it so we can make sure it's a fantastic standard."

Volunteers began the task at 06:00 BST with the flowers, which arrived in a refrigerated truck after being picked on Tuesday in Belgium.

Rigg said: "We printed Shiraaz's lovely design on a big, essentially like a canvas and then it was almost then a paint-by-numbers theme, but with flowers.

"The flowers are packed in really, really tightly and solidly together so that they have their own eco system which keeps them as fresh as possible."

Now it is complete, the carpet will be on public display for four days with the dahlias due to be taken away on Monday - either for dye-making or composting by local horticultural groups, said Rigg.

The work is part of Nature Season, a programme of nature-themed cultural activity across five West Yorkshire districts put on by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA).

This includes large-scale installations, open-air concerts, woodland art trails and community gardening projects.

Nature Season is supported by WYCA and the West Yorkshire Local Visitor Economy Partnership which promotes tourism in the region.

Partners include all five West Yorkshire councils.

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