King Charles celebrates two birthdays every year, on November 14 and June 10, and he has always liked to receive a very specific gift when the day rolls around
With a fortune estimated to be anywhere between £640 million and £2 billion, King Charles III could buy just about anything he fancies. This leaves his friends, family, and admirers in a bit of a pickle as he celebrates his 77th birthday.
“That’s the question,” quips the King’s former butler, Grant Harrold. “What do you give the person who has everything?”.
Grant, who served His Majesty from 2004 to 2011, reveals that the King, hailed by Alan Titchmarsh as “the best royal gardener in history,” always appreciates a gift for his cherished Highgrove garden.
“He would always ask for things for the garden,” Grant exclusively told The Express. “He’s previously asked for benches, plants and trees. Gardening is his real passion.”
Royal gardener Jack Stooks echoed Grant’s sentiments, telling us that the King almost always requests plants and garden items: “That’s what he tends to put on his list,” Jack confirmed.
Jack added: “He would ask for trees, shrubs, roses, hedging. He would plant them at one of the royal gardens, either Clarence House, Buckingham Palace, Windsor, Sandringham, or up in Scotland.”
Over the years, the King has been gifted numerous presents from celebrities. Jack reminisced: “Elton John gave him an Indian bean tree, a golden Indian bean tree that used to grow at Highgrove, which unfortunately has now died.
“Pierce Brosnan and his wife gave the King a Magnolia. The King planted it in the apple orchard by the Orchard Room; it’s a massive tree now.
“They actually once came around the garden and I met them both, and they were just so lovely and down to earth and normal. We showed them the tree that they’d gifted him years before, which was really nice.”
Jack went on: ” Sting and Trudie Styler gave the King and Camilla a whole Fritillaria, snakes-head fritillaria, and that all went into the meadow. It’s so nice when people can come and look at gifts that they’ve given the King, especially when they’re growing so well.
“I think it’s such a nice idea to have, the kind of gift giving that keeps on giving year after year with flowers, trees, with other people enjoying it as well.”
The monarch’s passion for gardening, which stretches back to his student years at Gordonstoun, is widely recognised. “My interest in gardening was always there,” the King, then Prince Charles, remarked in 2010.
His Majesty continued: “As a child my sister and I were given a little plot at Buckingham Palace at the back of the border for growing vegetables. But it’s not until you have somewhere of your own that it becomes more possible… The thing about [Highgrove] was that it was a blank canvas; I had to start from scratch.”
King Charles, fondly dubbed “The Boss” by his 11-strong horticultural crew, adopts a remarkably hands-on approach at Highgrove. Brian Corr, Head of Gardens, revealed to the Royal Horticultural Society website that King Charles often has a pruning saw in hand during his regular garden tours.
The King confessed his fondness for an “evening patrol” at the weekend: “As I potter about I notice things and weed or prune bits off. I’m sure most people come here and think I don’t do anything. But I do.”
He also doesn’t dodge physically demanding tasks like hedge-laying: “It keeps you relatively sane,” he said, “and it’s very good exercise.”
