Forty million pots of flowers are being planted in Beijing to decorate Beijing for the summer Olympics.

The Beijing News reported that five million pots will decorate an area of 100 thousand square meters around the Olympic venues.

A gardener maintains waterlilies in front of the National Stadium, nicknamed "Bird's Nest", in Beijing, capital of China, June 20, 2008. A total of 40 million pots of flowers will be set at places including the Tian'anmen Square, Chang'an Street and all the Olympic venues in Beijing from June 20 to July 15.

The flowers will mostly be planted in the ground, while flower sculptures will appear along Chang'an Avenue, arranged to showcase ancient Chinese culture.

According to Zhou Jianping, an official from Beijing Municipal Bureau of Landscape and Forestry, a hundred varieties of flowers that can resist high temperature and humidity were chosen out of a thousand in case of bad weather. Over one million spare pots have also been prepared as substitutes.

Perennial flowers will be reused after the Olympics, while the annual herbs will be used as plant food.

Flower planting will wrap up by July 15 before the arrival of athletes and officials and to reduce the impact on transportation and environment.