‘King of the Compost’ blossoms at Chelsea
Schoolchildren present His Majesty with a new title as they show off their ‘No Adults Allowed’ garden
THE King was amused to be dubbed “King of the Compost” while the Queen revealed she was a fan of Bridgerton as they toured the Chelsea Flower Show yesterday evening.
The monarch was given a badge bearing the moniker by schoolchildren who had helped design one of the gardens, called No Adults Allowed.
“Oh hahaha. Quite right!” he laughed as he read it. The Queen was handed a badge declaring her “Queen of Bees”.
The garden was one of the first stops for the couple as they made their annual pilgrimage to the world famous horticultural show, held in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea. They were joined by the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, as well as friends and relatives including the Queen’s daughter Laura Lopes, her husband Harry, sister Annabel Elliot, and the Marquess and Marchioness of Cholmondeley.
The King, who has recently taken on the patronage of the Royal Horticultural Society from his late mother, appeared delighted with the concept of the garden co-designed by children from Sullivan Primary School in Fulham.
Adults who want to see it must pledge to plant a tree, donate to the RHS school gardening campaign, or find a flower that starts with the first letter of their name. To enter the garden, the King and Queen were told they must pay a “forfeit” and duly handed over a posey of flowers beginning with the first letter of their names, camellias, from the Buckingham Palace gardens.
“Are you trying to grow vegetables?” the King asked some of the children.
“There’s nothing more fun than eating something you have grown. You should try it. It makes such a difference. It tastes so different.”
He appeared particularly taken with the inclusion of a slide and some water.
However, it could have been a very different outing for Their Majesties, for while a meadow, a slide and a den were among the children’s ideas that made the cut, crocodiles were ruled out.
Having arrived together in the State Bentley, the King and Queen briefly separated, in order to see as many gardens between them as possible.
One of the first stops for the Queen was the Bridgerton garden, a “secretive and secluded” space based on Penelope Featherington, a wallflower-like character from the popular Netflix show.
Camilla revealed she was a fan, saying: “I watched the first lot.”
She was entranced by a stone bench that popped open to reveal a draw containing diaries and documents.
“Oh my goodness me, how very exciting!” she exclaimed. “It’s very peaceful with the water. The freesias are out and looking beautiful.”
The Queen popped into the Highgrove Gardens shop, which features at the show for the first time. On display were willow sculptures of her two rescue terriers Beth and Bluebell, made by artist Emma Stothard, who established her business with the help of a loan from The Prince’s Trust.
The dogs wore neck scarves and were accompanied with hand-painted bowls bearing their names.
“Oh look at them and look at their bowls!” the Queen said.
Asked if they were as naughty as her two, she laughed and said: “I hope so!”
The life-size sculptures are to be taken back to Highgrove, the King and Queen’s Gloucestershire home, where they will live in the gardens alongside a similar sculpture of the King’s beloved Jack Russell, Tigga, who died in 2002.
Strolling on in the evening sunshine, the Queen declared the Sue Ryder garden “so peaceful, so lovely” and stopped at the Bees for Development stand, an organisation of which she is president.
“I have bees of my own,” she declared. Meanwhile, the King chatted to Alan Titchmarsh, who presented the King with a gift from Dame Judi Dench.
He also visited the Moroto no IE Garden, by Kazuyuki Ishihara, which features an array of colourful acers and a tumbling waterfall.
Mr Ishihara said he believed the King
‘There’s nothing more fun than eating something you have grown. It tastes so different’
was a particular fan of moss, which features in abundance.
“The King loves moss,” Mr Ishihara said. “When a seed falls on concrete, nothing will come out. But if the seed goes on moss, everything will grow.
“Moss is everywhere in the world, so as things get dried up due to climate change, I hope it might be able to save the Earth.”
The final garden on the couple’s tour was the Addleshaw Goddard Junglette Balcony Garden, designed by husband and wife team Mike Mcmahon and Jewlsy Mathews, who are showing at Chelsea for the first time.
Mr Mcmahon, inspired as a child by Gardeners’ World presenter Geoff Hamilton, said of the royal visitors: “What really pleases me is that the King has such a strong interest in sustainability, which goes back years and years.
“The reason we’re doing a garden at Chelsea is not to do an amazing, beautiful garden. It’s more to shed light on the fact that there are loads of empty balconies all over Britain that could be filled with greenery, and help to combat climate change.”