Another encounter was the year my cookbook came out, I was visited by Prince Philip on our trade stand on Main Avenue and he picked up the book and sped read and even picked out a spelling mistake and then asked why fennel stopped flatulence. When I replied that I didn’t think I could explain that to him, he said: ‘Of course you can, spit it out’. So I explained about aniseed. He looked over the book and said: ‘I rather like this’ and when I said that was lucky because I had just given one to the Queen, he said: ‘That’s no good, I’m the cook!’ so I gave him a copy too. I have a lovely image of them sitting together in bed both reading it.

Nick Bailey, horticulturalist and writer

I have a few stories about the Royal Family, including the fact that Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie came to one of the gardens I did and were both obsessed with the viewing platform I had in my garden and wanted to buy it. But one of the funnier stories was when Princess Anne came to the edge of my garden one year and lent over to me and whispered: ‘there’s a load of old rubbish here, but this is lovely.’

I think when the Royal Family are at Chelsea they are a little more relaxed than normal because they are en masse and there isn’t so much pressure on them individually. I’ve never actually spoken to the Queen, and I wouldn’t describe myself as a royalist, but when you see her there’s a sort of aura around Her Majesty. It’s extraordinary. I can’t really describe it. She’s such an icon.

Mark Gregory, Landform Consultants

Meeting the Queen at Chelsea can be a bit of a tense moment, because all the press follow her about, but she’s very natural and she puts people at ease. The first time I met her I was working on a garden which focused on home offices and networking, in 2003. It had glass stepping stones over a pool, which led to the office or studio. She was brought over to the garden and I was introduced and asked to explain the garden’s concept. I said: ‘It’s about home working, so you’ve got to imagine that you’re somewhere like Slough’. Entirely forgetting that Windsor Castle is in Slough. And she said: ‘Oh we’ve nothing like this in Slough’. We had a giggle.

Then the RHS director general asked if she’d like to go into the building, which meant crossing the glass stepping stones. She looked at them and you could see she was thinking: there’s no way you’re getting me on those stones. Instead she looked up at the sky and said: ‘Do you know what, it looks like rain, no I think we better get moving on’.

© . .RHS / Luke MacGregor

Matt Keightley, garden designer

One year at Chelsea I had been stood on my garden at the top of Main Avenue, waiting for the royal procession to filter through the show ground. Round and round in my head were the words I thought I might produce as I was introduced to the Queen: ‘Good Afternoon your Majesty’, ‘Nice to meet you, your Majesty’…’Ma’am as in Ham, not Ma’am as in farm’ and so on.

It felt like a long wait and then all of a sudden a large crowd gathered in front of me. Prince Harry who I’d met a few times by this point, stepped forward with his grandma beside him. Before I knew it, Prince Harry had said ‘Meet Matt.’ There was a handshake and a pause followed by all I could muster which was ‘Afternoon’!

We then proceeded to start walking the garden path together, when she paused and looked up at me, ‘What is that sinister looking implement’, she said. I was holding what I can only describe as a metal rod that resembled a cattle prod and looking back something her security detail could have easily seen as a threat. It was in fact the steel template we had made to create children’s footprints in the stone path and Her Majesty was simply showing a genuine interest.

That was very first time I met the Queen, not quite as I had planned, but a fleeting moment I will always remember.

 

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