A rundown Glasgow underpass is being transformed by a giant flower garden with a difference.

Instead of traditional organic blooms, the Phoenix Flowers will be up to eight metres tall with two-metre wide aluminium petals.

The 52 towering flowers are part of major improvements to the Cowcaddens underpass, and will form a colourful gateway between the city centre and the developing creative and cultural neighbourhood on the banks of the Forth & Clyde Canal at Speirs Locks.

The striking features have been commissioned by the Glasgow Canal Partnership and will illuminate a vibrant, red trail from the Cowcaddens subway and through the underpass beneath the M8 flyover. It is hoped that in time the pink, orange and yellow blooms, which will be between five and eight metres tall, will continue through Speirs Locks and along the canalside, providing a continuous multi-coloured link from the city centre to the waterway.

It is anticipated that the £1.5 million project and other landscape improvements will be completed by contractors Land Engineering next spring with the flowers “blooming” in time for Easter. Steve Dunlop is director Scotland, at British Waterways, one of the partners in the Canal Partnership.

He said: “The Phoenix Flowers will rise up from the ashes of the old Phoenix Park, bringing new life to an area of Glasgow that has long been neglected. “They will also help to build a strong new identify for the area and establish an important and colourful link from the city centre to Scotland’s new centre for creative and cultural industries at Speirs Locks, and the canal beyond.

“The Cowcaddens underpass was no longer operating as a meaningful link across the M8 motorway, with flooding issues and a perception of crime ensuring that people avoided the area.

“We knew that a bold approach was required which reflected the area’s industrial heritage but which had an eye on the future and the area’s potential as a blossoming cultural and creative hub.”

Councillor George Ryan, executive member for business and the economy at Glasgow City Council, added: “Given its scale and

proximity to the Glasgow City Centre, Speirs Locks provides a second to none opportunity to create a place where the relationship between the creative and cultural industries can flourish to full effect.”

The Phoenix Flowers were the brainchild of Scottish designers 7N Architects and Rankin Fraser landscape architects, who worked with the Glasgow Canal Partnership to create the Speirs Locks masterplan.