One's Palatial Secret Garden
An oasis literally abuzz with bucolic wonder – yet yards from a traffic-choked six-lane roundabout? All is revealed in these glorious rare pictures
IT HAS a herbaceous border 512 ft long and a lake complete with waterfall, not to mention a rose garden, wildflower meadows and sweeping lawns.
Home to a wide array of flora and fauna, it includes more than 1,000 trees, while the rose garden has 25 beds, each planted with 60 bushes of different varieties.
A secluded island in the 3.5-acre lake is a haven for wildlife and a site for five beehives, which produce 160 jars of honey each year for use in the royal kitchens. But although this is one of the finest royal gardens, it is not in deepest Norfolk or Scotland.
Instead, it is a hidden oasis next to one of the busiest, most polluted roads in Britain.
In non-lockdown times, 24,000 visitors in total are invited to the three parties a year traditionally held in Buckingham Palace’s garden by the Queen.
But even they cannot see the full splendour of the 39-acre horticultural wonder that, for the rest of the year, is Her Majesty’s private garden.
Now, though, its secret corners can be explored in photographs from a new book.
Written by Claire Masset, it follows a year in the life of the garden, gives a tour of its features and rich history, and provides a rare glimpse into its behind-thescenes management.
Extracts from the book, released yesterday, tell how the garden bursts dramatically into colour as spring approaches.
‘Spring-flowering trees are peppered throughout the garden, but some areas — such as the Magnolia Dell and Queen’s Walk — are filled with them,’ it says.
‘Sometimes even in late winter, the camellias come into bloom. There are more than 200 varieties in the garden, ranging from single flowers to frothy, peony-like blooms, and from pure white through to mottled pinks and intense reds.’
When the camellias have finished their first flush of flowers, the magnolias start their display. The book notes: ‘Most are in delicious shades of pink and white but a few are pale yellow, such as the variety “Butterflies”.’
Of the garden’s herbaceous border, which includes a variety of delphiniums, phloxes and poppies, it says: ‘By summer the plants at the back reach such heights that visitors can be fooled into thinking the border is planted on a slope...it rises towards you, like a colourful wave.’
Fifteen sweet-pea wigwams are spaced along the border and each year the Queen’s Royal Florist helps to choose a new set of sweet peas to use in flower arrangements for the palace and seasonal posies for Her Majesty.
The island in the lake, ‘wilder, shadier and generally more overgrown’, is a refuge for nesting birds. Recent surveys on the island have revealed two rare beetles and a fungus ‘not recorded here since 1938’.
Seasonal gardening tips are provided by
Mark Lane, head gardener at Buckingham Palace since 1992.
A long line of monarchs have relished the garden. Queen Victoria noted in her diary on May 13, 1843: ‘It was so fine in our pretty garden, with all the azaleas and rhododendrons out’.
■ BUCKINGHAM Palace: A Royal Garden is published by Royal Collection Trust on April 13. Available at £14.95 from Royal Collection Trust shops and rct.uk/shop, and priced £16.95 at bookshops.
... and still thriving after 150 years, pair of trees planted by Victoria and Albert