Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony

The project

The 2026 Opening Ceremony was the first in Commonwealth Games history to be held entirely indoors. At its centre, in the round, was the Scottish Nature Garden: a living stage of grasses, perennials, trees and shrubs, criss-crossed by a saltire-shaped walkway, with a performance crossroads at its heart and the landscape carried on around the arena on a wrap-around screen.

Stage designer Amalie White created the garden in collaboration with Form founder Jamie Butterworth, and Spectaculars delivered the production. Inspired by Scotland’s landscape and its textile heritage, the planting was chosen for soft, muted colours and textures, like tartan or tweed. During the athletes’ parade, the 74 Commonwealth teams planted their batons, carved from the wood of fallen trees in Glasgow’s parks, into the garden, and King Charles III and Queen Camilla stepped into it from the TARDIS.

What Form did

Rather than planting the garden up at the venue, we contract grew it on our Surrey nursery. Around 2,400 peat-free plants were pre-grown into giant modular jigsaw trays on castors, so the garden arrived in Glasgow fully established, an instant garden ready for a live global audience.

Each tray weighed around a tonne but could be pushed by hand, and the eighteen interlocking pieces were rolled into place in about two minutes during the live ceremony. On the ground in Glasgow, James and Ruth led the planting for Form, working alongside the Spectaculars production team and Amalie White. Jamie guided the plant selection so that everything would grow well together and look its best under arena lights.

After the Games

Because the garden was made with living plants, it was always meant to find a permanent home in Scotland. After the Games it was moved in segments, by two trucks and two forklifts down the M8, to Parklea Branching Out in Port Glasgow, a therapeutic horticulture charity on the banks of the Clyde that supports more than 200 young people and adults every week.

The garden was shown first in its original saltire design, before the plants settle into Parklea’s borders, where they will be used for teaching, propagated and shared with local community groups.