Queen proves a late bloomer in the garden
Royal visitor impresses the Chelsea Flower Show experts with her in-depth knowledge of gardening
The Queen met Mary Berry at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show yesterday and surprised experts with her in-depth interest and knowledge of gardening, developed late in life at Frogmore House, in the Home Park at Windsor.
THE QUEEN has discovered a renewed interest in gardening, it has emerged, proving that even at the age of 91, it is never too late to take up a new hobby.
The monarch, who toured the Chelsea Flower Show yesterday alongside the Duke of Edinburgh, is said to have been inspired by a garden restoration project at Windsor and has developed an impressive knowledge about plants.
She has taken such an interest in the regeneration of the gardens at Frogmore House that for her 90th birthday last year, her friends are said to have given her plants for the new beds.
And as a result of her new passion, the Queen was said to have been unusually animated while visiting the worldfamous flower show.
Robert Hillier, chairman of Hillier Nurseries, one of the country’s leading horticultural suppliers, revealed that he was taken aback by her sudden interest in the subject. He said: “She has never shown her knowledge before. We have met many times but suddenly she is so interested in plants and planting.
“She is really thrilled with the way Frogmore is developing. She has now got more ambitious and wants to do a lot more. She obviously enjoys going to Chelsea, but in the past she has not been so animated. She has got really into gardening. It’s never too late!”
Lady Elizabeth Anson, who has been overseeing the project, said: “Her knowledge of plants is phenomenal – and she knows the Latin names.” Frogmore, a Georgian house set in 35 acres inside the Home Park of Windsor Castle, is bursting with tulip trees, redwoods and wisteria. The grounds were designed as an escape for Queen Charlotte, the green-fingered wife of George III.
Such is the Queen’s love of its lawns, that it has been claimed the five-strong gardening team are not allowed to remove a single tree or shrub without her permission. As the monarch toured the flower show, it emerged that her knowledge even extended to earwigs, recalling how gardeners used to trap them with upturned flower pots on top of tomato canes. “I do remember that,” she said. “And the children had to go out and empty them.”
During her tour of the gardens, it also emerged that the Queen, previously an ardent listener of Sir Terry Wogan’s BBC Radio 2 breakfast show, now tunes in to his successor, Chris Evans. She met the DJ at his Taste Garden and told him he was on her radio that morning.
He explained: “She said ‘I was listening to you this morning’, because it was the Chelsea flower show.”
As the Duchess of Cambridge looked around Evans’s garden, she proved her down-to-earth credentials by eating a tomato she dropped on the floor, before revealing that she was just getting into gardening with her children.
The Cambridges are understood to enjoy an extensive kitchen garden at Anmer Hall, in Norfolk. But the Duchess, 35, revealed she has had to teach threeyear-old Prince George not to eat the foxgloves as they are poisonous.
The Duchess, fresh from enjoying the late-night party following her sister Pippa Middleton’s wedding, wore a midi-length £1,500 green frock by Rochas, with an appropriate floral print.
The royals were joined by celebrities including Dame Judi Dench, Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders.
Mary Berry, a Royal Horticultural Society ambassador, got chatting to the Duke of Edinburgh and learnt that he was no fan of kohlrabi. She said: “He reckoned it was a bit wet and not full of flavour – and I think I agree with him.”
The show, which hosts more than 500 exhibitors, opens to the public today.