He’s the godfather of punk: a set of washboard abs under a ragged mop of hair, howling his switchblade nihilism above a squall of ironclad guitars. He was once a poster-boy for heroin culture - a junkie whose decadent disregard for his own health and sanity made Pete Doherty look like Lulu.

And now, he’s a flower garden. But ‘Lust for Life’, to be exhibited at the Chelsea Flower Show, isn’t simply row upon endless row of ripe poppy pods.

Nor has he finally succumbed to excess and begun ‘pushing up daisies’. Named after Pop’s Trainspotting-opening hit, the garden has actually being created to ‘inspire children to embrace life’.

According to the BBC, the 60-year-old, who is known for his wild stage antics, has taken a keen interest in plans for the garden.

"I'm honoured that The Children's Society's garden is inspired by my music and wholeheartedly support the work that they do - they rock," he said.

The focal point of the garden is an arc of water, which will be programmed to the beat of the Lust for Life single.

Riddled with as many contradictions as he has puncture marks on his inner arms, Pop is also a classical scholar, whose article ‘Caesar lives’ in the second issue of Classics Ireland in 1995 (CI 1995.2:94-96) considers the applicability of Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire to the modern world.

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