You might also like<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> One of the times I met the Queen was in 2016 and our conversation hit the headlines. \u2018Queen jokes about being killed\u2019 they read<\/a>. I had done the St John\u2019s Hospice garden and one of the women I had worked with had produced a posy which we gave to the Queen and Her Majesty said: \u2018Can you explain what the herbs are?\u2019 so I explained and it came to Lily of the Valley and I explained that actually it is highly poisonous. She said: \u2018I\u2019ve been given a lot of Lily of the Valley over the last few weeks, do you think someone wants me dead?\u2019 And I said: \u201cOh I do hope not!\u201d<\/p>\n It was a conversation that was just between three of us, but a newspaper overheard and it went worldwide. She is an absolutely fantastic woman, I was totally lucky, as she felt very fun and had a real sense of humour and a lovely zest of life.<\/p>\n Another encounter was the year my cookbook came out<\/a>, 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\u2019t think I could explain that to him<\/em>, he said: \u2018Of course you can, spit it out\u2019. So I explained about aniseed. He looked over the book and said: \u2018I rather like this\u2019 and when I said that was lucky because I had just given one to the Queen, he said: \u2018That\u2019s no good, I\u2019m the cook!\u2019 so I gave him a copy too. I have a lovely image of them sitting together in bed both reading it.<\/p>\n 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: \u2018there\u2019s a load of old rubbish here, but this is lovely.\u2019<\/p>\n I think when the Royal Family are at Chelsea they are a little more relaxed than normal because they are en masse<\/em> and there isn\u2019t so much pressure on them individually. I\u2019ve never actually spoken to the Queen, and I wouldn\u2019t describe myself as a royalist, but when you see her there\u2019s a sort of aura around Her Majesty. It\u2019s extraordinary. I can\u2019t really describe it. She\u2019s such an icon.<\/p>\n Meeting the Queen at Chelsea can be a bit of a tense moment, because all the press follow her about, but she\u2019s 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\u2019s concept. I said: \u2018It\u2019s about home working, so you\u2019ve got to imagine that you\u2019re somewhere like Slough\u2019. Entirely forgetting that Windsor Castle is in Slough. And she said: \u2018Oh we\u2019ve nothing like this in Slough\u2019. We had a giggle.<\/p>\n Then the RHS director general asked if she\u2019d 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\u2019s no way you\u2019re getting me on those stones. Instead she looked up at the sky and said: \u2018Do you know what, it looks like rain, no I think we better get moving on\u2019.<\/p>\n 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: \u2018Good Afternoon your Majesty\u2019, \u2018Nice to meet you, your Majesty\u2019\u2026\u2019Ma\u2019am as in Ham, not Ma\u2019am as in farm\u2019 and so on.<\/p>\n It felt like a long wait and then all of a sudden a large crowd gathered in front of me. Prince Harry who I\u2019d met a few times by this point, stepped forward with his grandma beside him. Before I knew it, Prince Harry had said \u2018Meet Matt.\u2019 There was a handshake and a pause followed by all I could muster which was \u2018Afternoon\u2019!<\/p>\n We then proceeded to start walking the garden path together, when she paused and looked up at me, \u2018What is that sinister looking implement\u2019, 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\u2019s footprints in the stone path and Her Majesty was simply showing a genuine interest.<\/p>\n That was very first time I met the Queen, not quite as I had planned, but a fleeting moment I will always remember.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n By Daisy Bowie-Sell Published: Sunday, 06 March 2022 at 12:00 am The Royal Family are regulars at RHS Chelsea Flower Show and they make time to meet designers and growers on their tour of the event. Here are a few encounters between their royal highnesses and the horticultural community. You might also like Royalty at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":8408,"template":"","categories":[1,17],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"6"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2022\/03\/what-the-queen-told-me.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2022\/03\/what-the-queen-told-me-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2022\/03\/what-the-queen-told-me-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2022\/03\/what-the-queen-told-me-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2022\/03\/what-the-queen-told-me-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2022\/03\/what-the-queen-told-me-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2022\/03\/what-the-queen-told-me-2048x1366.jpg",2048,1366,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Daisy Bowie-Sell Published: Sunday, 06 March 2022 at 12:00 am The Royal Family are regulars at RHS Chelsea Flower Show and they make time to meet designers and growers on their tour of the event. Here are a few encounters between their royal highnesses and the horticultural community. You might also like Royalty at…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/8407"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/gardensillustrated\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\""1930s:\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/18\/2020\/05\/GettyImages-463993049-ea23fbb-scaled.jpg?quality=45&resize=556,556"\" "\\"\"1930s:\\"")
<\/div>Jekka McVicar, herb expert<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\""2015:\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/18\/2020\/05\/GettyImages-473902690-ff6975d-scaled.jpg?quality=90&resize=563%2C413"\" "\\"\"2015:\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Nick Bailey, horticulturalist and writer<\/h2>\n
![\""2012:\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/18\/2020\/05\/GettyImages-144973556-051d612-scaled.jpg?quality=90&resize=553%2C413"\" "\\"\"2012:\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Mark Gregory<\/a>, Landform Consultants<\/h2>\n
![\""2019:\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/18\/2020\/05\/rhslukemacgregor2019-4a9198c-scaled.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413"\" "\\"\"2019:\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Matt Keightley<\/a>, garden designer<\/h2>\n
Head to our Chelsea Flower Show hub page for all our coverage<\/a><\/em><\/h2><\/body><\/html>\n
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