What Was Princess Diana’s Favorite Flower? Find Out How the Palace’s Garden Honors Her
Princess Diana is memorialized at Kensington Palace in many ways. One is that there is a memorial in the garden that includes her favorite flower and more. What is it and how has the garden come into play with honoring her years later? Here is everything you need to know.
Princess Diana’s favorite flowers were forget-me-nots
Forget-me-nots tend to grow tall and the petals can be found in blue and pink. The flower reportedly became her favorite after receiving them from a close family member.
“Earl Spencer, Princess Diana’s brother, gave some forget-me-nots to her when they were younger. They stayed with her as one of her favorite flowers, so it was important to include them,” Sean Harkin, head gardener at Kensington Palace, told Vogue.
Kensington Palace has a memorial section to honor Princess Diana. It includes not only her favorite flowers but other kinds of flowers in a specific color.
The Kensington Palace is full of white flowers because she often wore the color
The garden doesn’t just include the famous royal’s favorite flower. It’s full of white lilies, roses, and other white flowers because of her iconic wardrobe and more.
“We have hundreds of white lilies, because people recall she left a lot of those cut flowers around her apartment here at Kensington,” said Harkin. “I think lots of people would refer to Princess Diana as the classic English rose,” explained the gardener. “It felt like it was a must to include them.”
Graham Dillamore, who was the head gardener of Kensington Palace’s memorial garden from 1984 to 1992, talked about Princess Diana’s love of certain colors in the palace’s garden.
“She loved the colours and the brightness [of the garden]…She would ask how we came about picking the colours and getting the colour scheme so we would discuss that,” said Dillamore according to the Telegraph. “She never confessed to being a fantastic gardener, but there were certain colours she liked in the garden – soft pinks, whites, yellow, pastel shades. She used to turn her nose up if I ever put red or deep purple flowers.”
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s Mother’s Day post included Princess Diana’s favorite flowers
Meghan Markle got to celebrate her first Mother’s Day shortly after giving birth to Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor. The post’s caption didn’t explicitly mention Princess Diana’s but the picture showed Archie’s feet and in the background there are forget-me-nots.
The caption reads, “Paying tribute to all mothers today – past, present, mothers-to-be, and those lost but forever remembered. We honor and celebrate each and every one of you. Today is Mother’s Day in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Kenya, Japan, and several countries across Europe. This is the first Mother’s Day for The Duchess of Sussex.”
This isn’t the first time the royal couple paid tribute to Prince Harry’s mother with the flowers. Meghan Markle’s bouquet for her wedding included handpicked flowers from the Kensington Palace’s garden. That included forget-me-nots.
Read more: How Archie Harrison’s Name Could Be a Tribute to Princess Diana
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