The wildflowers in the Tower of London moat are the first stage in a project to turn the 14,000 square metre area over to nature.

It is the second major Jubilee project to focus on the natural world, with Her Majesty’s admirers throughout the Commonwealth already encouraged to “Plant a Tree for the Jubilee” in the Queen’s Green Canopy.

Its success relies partly on the British weather, with the right weather conditions and ground temperature for the flowers to grow and thrive.

The moat will include cornflowers, sunflowers, gyposphila, poppies, and pink cosmos, with other garden plants added to the native wildflowers to allow for taller planting schemes and colourful displays throughout the summer.

The design was selected for its simplicity, intended to capture the renewed solace the public found in nature during the Covid-19 lockdown.

In 1977, at the Silver Jubilee, the moat was used for a garden display. In 2014, to mark the centenary of the start of the First World War, it was filled with 800,000 ceramic poppies in a moving commemoration.

“For the first time, a space built in the 13th century to keep people out of the Tower, will welcome visitors in,” a spokeswoman for Historic Royal Palaces said.

“From June 2022, it will be open every day for visitors to explore and see the spectacle of the ‘Superbloom’ close up.”

The exact mix of flowers has been adapted after several rounds of testing, to create the greatest improvement to biodiversity in the moat and its surrounding areas.