Have you ever wondered what grows behind the walls of Clarence House? You are not alone. Ahead of the Coronation, garden designer Dave Green has been busy quizzing the royal gardeners and growers on which plants are the favourite or most talked-about of the royal family and the famously plant- loving King.
Why? Well, the Royal Horticultural Society has asked him to create the Royal Tribute Garden at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show. The garden, which will be seen by more than 150,000 people during the show, contains plants known to be liked by both the late Queen and Charles, the green-fingered King.
Look out for these plants in Green’s garden at Chelsea, or plant them to get the royal look in your own outside space.
White Lupin ‘Noble Maiden’ and ‘Gallery White’
Lupins are a beautiful herbaceous perennial that emerge from the soil with a flush of new leaves each spring, quickly followed by tall, white flower spikes just in time for Chelsea. They are slightly notorious for being a favourite of slugs and snails, but in London if you’ve got a mollusc-free balcony, you might be on to a winner.
Grown in their masses at Highgrove are the two white Lupins: L “Noble Maiden” and L “Gallery White”, both of which will be making an appearance in Green’s Chelsea garden.
Camassia
If you’ve been to Highgrove, the King’s private estate and organic garden in Gloucestershire, then you won’t have been able to miss the carpet of blue bulbs in the meadow leading up to the house. You could be forgiven for thinking they are bluebells, but in fact they are camassias, native to North America.
You’ll find both Camassia quamash and Camassia leichtlinii in Green’s Chelsea garden and in the King’s own garden.
Hydrangea ‘Endless Summer’ and hydrangea quercifolia
Hydrangeas are reliable garden shrubs that produce masses of flowers each summer lasting on the plant in delicate skeletal form long into winter, or they can be cut and dried as inside flowers, as alluded to by the name “Endless Summer”. It flowers blue, fading to pink as the season progresses.
Unfortunately you won’t spot it at Chelsea, instead you’ll see the equally beautiful Hydrangea quercifolia, which has cone-shaped panicles of flowers that begin green, quickly turning white as summer progresses. These are set against a backdrop of leaves that resemble an oak tree.
Hydrangeas do well in London, and will grow in sun or partial shade. Plants in containers or those newly planted will need watering regularly in summer to keep them at their best.
Cornus kousa
When most people hear cornus, they think of the colourful stems of dogwood but this cornus is really grown for its flowers. You might even call them royal, as unusually for a flower they have four large curling white petals, and appear like bows or small crowns that sit on top of lime green foliage in summer.
Cornus kousa grows to be a fairly large shrub up to three metres tall and wide, so you will need a bit of space to let them unfurl.
Magnolia ‘Heaven Scent’
No royal garden would be complete without a regal magnolia somewhere in it. Green’s research has led him to choose Magnolia “Heaven Scent” to feature in his Chelsea garden. It’s a medium-sized magnolia tree, well suited to a small London garden, that flowers in one flush at this time of year. The flowers are magenta pink with a white edge and, of course, are packed with scent.
- Catch the RHS Royal Tribute Garden at the Chelsea Flower show from May 22, last few tickets still available from rhs.org.uk
