PASSENGERS getting off the train at Canary Wharf station on the London Underground would get a surprise if this scene greeted them. They would be stepping onto grass covering the entire platform, with flowering oaks and palm trees in the middle and plants running up the escalators

By Mike Brooke

PASSENGERS getting off the train at Canary Wharf station on the London Underground would get a surprise if this scene greeted them.

They would be stepping onto grass covering the entire platform, with flowering oaks and palm trees in the middle and plants running up the escalators.

It’s a transport planners’ dream—although they haven’t yet worked out how they’d grow healthy plant life without natural daylight 150ft deep under ground.

FLOWERING INFERNO’

This floral view of Canary Wharf deep under the financial district’s towering skyscrapers, showing an exotic and colourful Tube network, has been conjured up by Transport bosses to launch this year’s Underground in Bloom’ gardening contest.

Imaginative artists have used graphic imaging to see what the dusty old Tube might look like spruced up with natural flora.

It’s aimed at encouraging station staff all over the Tube network to grow flowers, plants and even fruit and vegetables to make the daily rush-hour into town more pleasant for commuters.

Judging is July 27 to August 7, with the winners declared on September 10.