A garden designed by Amalie White in collaboration with plantsman Jamie Butterworth formed the centre-piece for the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games 2026 last night. Spanning over 200 square metres of flora, the 15-metre diameter moveable garden was filled with plants that evoked a living piece of the Scottish setting. Hosted in Glasgow, Scotland, the Commonwealth Games opened with this lush green scene and from here, King Charles III and Queen Camilla emerged from Dr Who’s famous blue Tardis.
Inspired by Scotland’s pioneering textile industry and Glasgow’s heritage in shipbuilding practices, Amalie White’s stage design began with a single knotted thread: the beginning of a celtic knot. As lines of woven light joined together, an infinite loop of paths converged on a central point. Amalie White said of the design: “The stage was not just a performance space – it served as a crossroads where athletes from across the city, the country, and the Commonwealth met, a place where sport, nature, culture and art interconnected.”
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Jamie Butterworth, who planted the garden, used giant trays on moveable castors on which the plants were tended. Although the weighed one tonne each, the large modular trays were moved around by hand thanks to the wheels and the entire installation was rolled out in two minutes for a rapid scene change akin to a giant garden jigsaw. Plants were grown peat-free on Jamie Butterworth’s Form Plants nursery and were chosen for their wild palette and texture. Amalie White said: “These soft, muted colours and textures act much like a traditional tartan or tweed: up close, the individual details are detailed, but from afar, everything feels connected. I selected plants that I’d seen and evoke memories of times spent in Scotland, from the wild coastline and mountainous settings to the urban environment.”
Jamie Butterworth was able to guide the selection from a horticultural point of view, so that the plants grow well together and make sense as a whole. Talking about the project, Jamie Butterworth said: “Horticulturally ambitious yet completely natural in feel, the garden is a loving tribute to Scotland. Ornamental grasses provide a baseline texture of wild setting, blending into a sweeping, heather-inspired palette of blues and purples. It features plenty of Molinia, Sesleria, Calamgrostis, Agastache, Catanache, Perovskia, Sanguisorba, Selenium, Nepeta, resilient thistles and multiple perennials that evoke coastal paths, alpine highlands, and loch-sides. We chose plants to provide volume, and colour, and a sense of wildness and the wider setting.”
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Placed centre stage, in the round, and criss-crossed with a saltire shaped walkway, the garden provided a powerful, grounding sense of place to welcome the athletes as they arrived into the arena and took their seats. The physical garden was enhanced by an immersive wrap-around screen that extended the setting into a cinematic vista, creating the illusion that the stage was nestled in the middle of a boundless setting. The centre of the garden was carved out to serve as a crossroads for performance, while a circular ramp allowed the action to completely surround the garden, offering a dynamic mixture of striking visual images.
This is the second time Jamie Butterworth and Amalie White have collaborated, having worked together on the Gucci Cruise 25 at Tate Modern. On this project, the design was partly inspired by His Majesty The King’s lifelong passion for the natural setting. It champions the philosophy of “letting nature in” and blurs the lines between careful cultivation and rugged Scottish wilderness. The garden will go on to have a permanent home which will be announced at the end of the Games.
