The very first floral clock was planted in the spring of 1903 in West Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh, Scotland. Initially it only had an hour hand but a minute hand was subsequently added the following year. A cuckoo which pops out every quarter hour was added in 1952.

This prompted many imitations across the UK and then later throughout the world. There are noteworthy examples in Detroit, St Petersburg, Geneva, Vienna, Zurich, Melbourne, Ostend and Taipei to name but a few.

This one, L’horloge fleurie, is in Geneva, Switzerland, which I have visited a couple of times (many years apart), the last time being in a cold and damp September.

L’horloge fleurie, or the flower clock, is located on the western side of the Jardin Anglais park in Geneva and around 6,500 flowering plants and shrubs are used for the clock face. The plants are changed as the seasons change.

The clock was created in 1955 and, until 2005, it was the largest flower clock in the world (diameter 5 metres) when it was overtaken by one in Tehran, Iran (diameter 15 metres). However, it still has the largest second hand at 2.5 metres. The clock is extremely accurate, the time you see being transmitted by satellite. Swiss precision and all that.