The Queen’s preference was for posies rather than bouquets. When in residence during the week at Buckingham Palace, the gardeners would send up a fresh posy of flowers for her desk every Monday on her return from Windsor Castle. She loved primroses, lily-of-the-valley and other modest blooms far more than elaborate exotics; something that speaks volumes about her personality.
Having addressed the Sandringham Women’s Institute Annual General Meeting in January 2000, I asked Her Majesty if she found her Norfolk garden rather dull in winter. She indicated otherwise. “I like the witch hazels” she said “though they are now so tall I have to jump up to smell them”, at which point she did a little jump in the air to demonstrate. On my return home I ordered half a dozen young plants to be dispatched to Sandringham and received a letter of thanks for my trouble.
On her accession in 1952 The Queen appointed Prince Philip to be the Ranger of Windsor Great Park, and relied upon him to take charge of new plantings there and on the other royal estates at Balmoral and Sandringham. Having sent Her Majesty a copy of my book Royal Gardeners in 2003, and received thanks and a long letter in reply from Prince Philip explaining those projects he had undertaken which I had somehow omitted to mention: among them an oak avenue in the Home Park at Windsor, the re-designing of the East Terrace at the castle, the extension of the Lime Avenue at Sandringham to mark The Queen’s Coronation along with an avenue of copper beeches, I sent Her Majesty a copy of my next royal book The Queen’s Houses in 2014. I imagined that, on receipt, most books, including my own, were flipped through and then passed on. But when we next met The Queen said “I’m reading your book”.
“Which one?” I asked.
“The one about my houses” she replied. “I’m reading about Sandringham. I didn’t know all that. Fascinating.” I blush to repeat the compliment, but it perfectly illustrates The Queen’s kindness and her willingness to put every one she met at ease.
The garden at Buckingham Palace, grand though it is, is very much an outdoor ‘function room’. The estates at Windsor, Sandringham and Balmoral are more extensive and, along with The Queen’s Green Canopy initiative, readily demonstrate the commitment of Queen Elizabeth II and her consort Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, to the greening of the planet. I feel privileged to have met them both and enjoyed, at first hand, their company, their conversation, their good humour and their devotion to the landscape they loved.
Alan Titchmarsh
