BBC Gardeners’ World presenter Monty Don has shared insights into King Charles’ passion for gardening, describing him as “genuinely serious” about the hobby.
Monty revealed that both the King and Queen have a “real personal interest” in gardening, praising the King’s enthusiasm and skill.
He claimed the monarch particularly enjoys spending time in the arboretum and even prunes his own trees.
Speaking to Radio Times, Monty said: “Certainly, the King is a genuinely serious, keen and good gardener. I also know the Queen loves gardening. She’s been to my garden. Both of them have a real personal interest.
“I know the King enjoys working in the arboretum on the Birkhall estate and prunes the trees himself.”
Monty Don explained that both the King and Queen have a “real personal interest”
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The popular horticulturalist also spoke about his experience visiting Charles’ Scottish estate, Birkhall, expressing his privilege at being able to see anyone’s garden, including the King’s.
However, he acknowledged that his statement might be seen as “slightly disingenuous”, given that not many people would have the same opportunity.
Earlier this year, he praised the King as “incredibly impressive” and diligent in his gardening efforts, adding that both Charles and the Queen are “excellent”.
Charles has been passionate about gardening since his childhood, fostering a love for nature as he grew vegetables with his sister, Princess Anne.
His affinity with the earth is such that in 2018 he expressed a desire to spend more of his later years planting trees, remarking “all I really long for is to plant trees”.
King Charles is widely-known as a passionate gardener
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This passion is recognised within the gardening community, as evidenced by praise from Monty and further echoed in November by another prominent gardener.
“He’s a very good gardener,” Graham Dillamore, Head Gardener at Historic Royal Palaces told OK!. “He knows his plants, he knows soil, he knows how to make things grow. He’s one of us and it’s inspiring.”
His early experiences playing in Buckingham Palace’s green expanses and maintaining a vegetable plot with Princess Anne might have sown the seeds of his love for nature, which he detailed in a 2018 interview with Gardeners’ World.
Later, as an adult in the 1980s, Charles dedicated himself to transforming the gardens at Highgrove House in Gloucestershire, an endeavour spanning over four decades. He regards Highgrove as a personal crusade against environmental neglect, having stated it is “one very small attempt to heal the appalling short-sighted damage done to the soil, the landscape and our souls”.