It’s wildly popular! Kate garden gets ‘20 out of 10’
The Duchess of Cambridge received a double seal of approval for her Chelsea Flower Show garden yesterday – from the Queen and from her eldest son.
While the monarch beamed with delight and declared it ‘very tidy’, Prince George told his mummy that he gave her ‘20 out of ten!’ for her Back To Nature forest extravaganza.
Kate had earlier inspected her garden, picking up stray leaves and twigs before changing into a dress by erdem to greet the Queen with a kiss on each cheek and a curtsey. Introducing her Majesty to David Dodds, the contractor, and her two garden co- designers, Andree Davies and Adam White, Kate said: ‘We threw ourselves into the deep end! I’ve had a lot of help.’
The duchess had consulted the Queen on the garden, and included favourite memories, such as carrots and beetroot that the monarch remembered planting as a child with her sister Margaret, as well as a waterfall in tribute to the one at Sandringham.
Kate had visited the garden earlier in an eye-catching pair of camel-coloured culottes costing £67 from Massimo Dutti.
Footage released by the BBC yesterday showed her children George, five, Charlotte, four and Louis, one, during their visit to the garden on Sunday, with Louis running towards the camera and smiling. The Duke of Cambridge can be seen chatting to George as he plays on a rope swing on the wooden treehouse.
he asks: ‘What would you give it out of ten, George? how many marks... ten being the highest?’ ‘Twenty!’ shouts George. ‘Twenty out of ten? That’s pretty good,’ laughs William, ‘I think Mummy’s done well.’
In contrast to her leafy jungle, this year’s show also features a garden to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, with ghostly figures of soldiers – made from steel washers – emerging from the sea in hail of bullets.
Designed by John everiss, it features a sculpture of Bill Pendell, from Oxfordshire, who died last year aged 97, looking at a figure representing himself as a 22-year- old recruit. his friend Joe Cattini, 96, a Royal Artillery veteran who landed alongside Mr Pendell on D-Day, said of the work: ‘The designers have done a very good job. how they made the soldiers out of washers is perfect.’
The day was not all royal tastefulness or sombre reflection, though. In the Wedgwood Garden a model posed wearing nothing but blue body paint adorned with a white pattern to represent the pottery firm’s designs. At the Primrose hill stand, another ‘living statue’ was covered in painted peonies.