The £5 million garden at heart of Olympic site

A GARDEN celebrating seven centuries of British plant collecting will form the colourful floral centrepiece at the 2012 Olympics site.

Designer Sarah Price, 28, has been selected to lead the project because of her preference for straightforward plants and flowers, in the tradition of such renowned gardeners as Gertrude Jekyll or Vita Sackville-West, rather than decking and water features gimmicks so beloved of "celebrity" gardeners.

Parklands director for the Olympic Delivery Authority, John Hopkins, said: "We have a great tradition of landscape design and garden design in this country," and the garden will form part of a park plans for which will be unveiled on Thursday by the ODA for the site of the games in Stratford.

Thousands of plant species and native woodland trees will fill the £5million garden, which will be divided into four geographical zones Europe and the Mediterranean, the Americas, Asia, and the southern hemisphere.

The £200million park will be about the size of St James's Park, near Buckingham Palace. The garden will run along a widened branch of the river on either side of the park's main entrance, between the main stadium and the aquatic centre.

Ms Price is the youngest designer responsible for a major project at the Olympics.

Commenting on her design, she said: "It's really a giant painting in three dimensions." Ms Price will oversee the planting under the overall direction of American landscape designer George Hargreaves, who designed the open spaces for the Sydney Olympics in 2000.