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TRH attend the Chelsea Flower Show

21st May 2007

The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall accompanied The Queen and other members of the family to the Chelsea Flower Show, the 85th held by the Royal Horticultural Society.

Their Royal Highnesses were paying a traditional visit to the show the day before it was due to open.

The Duke of Edinburgh, The Earl of Wessex, Princess Alexandra, Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, The Duke of Kent and The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester also attended.

In keeping with tradition, they explored the site separately, occasionally crossing each other’s paths.

The Prince is a keen gardener and developed the garden at Highgrove from scratch. The garden, along with the gardens at Clarence House and Birkhall in Scotland, are run on an organic basis.  Click here to find out more about the recent book by The Prince of Wales and Stephanie Donaldson about the organic method used in The Prince's garden.

At the Chelsea Flower Show this year, The Queen stopped to look at a Doctor Who inspired garden with a tardis separating a typical 1960s urban plot on one side of the garden and a modern 2007 plot on the other.

Mo Dorken, of Cardiff Council which worked with BBC Wales on the 'Garden in Time' said: "The Queen was asking 'Why is there a tardis there?'

"I was explaining that we are having a Doctor Who theme with a 1960s part of the garden because that was when the series first started."

On her tour, The Queen was handed an exotic orange and blue bird of paradise flower, along with a burgundy arum lily during her walk.

Well known celebrities also attended the official opening event such as actress Joanna Lumley, Michael Parkinson, Kim Wilde and Charlie Dimmock.

Joanna Lumley had a fuchsia named after her, which will be sold to make money for Barnardo's children's home.

She said: "This is ravishing. It is the most delicious candy pink with pale lilac.

"I'm rather ashamed to be in the same picture as it."

Michael Parkinson launched the white "Parky" rose. The chat show host, who grew up in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, said: "My father was a great gardener. He particularly loved white roses which is why this is so nostalgic for me."

More than 157,000 people are set to visit the event, which is open until Saturday. There are around 600 exhibitors, displaying a huge variety of plants and gardens.

Sustainability was the theme of a show garden by Marshalls, which sponsors the event.

The garden includes ideas for recycling water, producing solar power, and using recycled material, while an initiative to encourage more urbanites to keep bees was launched by the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA).

The BBKA created a show garden to inspire people living in urban areas to keep bees, which have lost some of their natural countryside habitat.

The "bee friendly" design is stocked with fruit, flowers and vegetables plus the bee hives. The insects themselves were not included in the garden because it is housed inside the Chelsea Flower Show's grand pavilion.