King all smiles as he meets David Beckham at Chelsea Flower Show
21 minutes agoSean CoughlanRoyal correspondent
PAIt must be a strange job being King. One minute you’re facing up to US President Donald Trump in the US Congress. The next you’re being introduced to garden gnomes.
King Charles and Queen Camilla were at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, a strange and beautiful place.
For only the second time, a ban on gnomes has been lifted this year by the Royal Horticultural Society, an opportunity that seemed to have been grasped by gardeners with both tiny ceramic hands.
The King was in a gnome from home, when he was shown a row of them in a cottage inspired by his own Highgrove house in Gloucestershire.
It must have felt like a fever dream moment. When the King went into this rustic cottage, called the Curious Garden, waiting for him was Sir David Beckham and Alan Titchmarsh.
On the shelf, also waiting for the royal arrival, there were gnomes of Sir David, Alan and King Charles. Although to be fair to the famous footballer, the years haven’t been kind to his gnome version, even if they’ve caught his current hair colour.
PAAnd it seems as though no royal event is complete without the presence of the famous gardener Titchmarsh, who the King must see more often than his own bodyguard.
For other celebrities, including Jonna Lumley, Bill Bailey and Sir Brian May, they found there’s gnome business like show business.
PAThe flower show as ever has some remarkable creativity, including in its high-concept show gardens.
The Campaign to Protect Rural England had a gorgeous carved wooden figure of Mother Nature, illustrating the theme of gardens at the edge of towns.
There were other beautiful sculptures made from driftwood by James Doran-Wood.
ReutersThe Tate Britain garden made a cultural splash with a water feature and a Barbara Hepworth sculpture.
And the Eden Project had a “Bring Me Sunshine” garden which referenced Morecambe in Lancashire, and by extension the comedian Eric Morecambe. It needed footnotes as well as roots.
But the garden itself will be sustainable, as it will be relocated to Morecambe after its stint at the show.
Other show gardens had worked so hard to look authentic and natural that they almost stopped looking like gardens.
ReutersThis is gardening on an epic scale, with vast stalls showing every type of flowers, interspersed with gardening equipment and pit-stops of champagne every few yards.
In a back to the fuschia moment, there was a tower of more than 20 different types of red, pink, white and purple fuschia, tumbling down.
The show, smelling of flowers and money, also tried to show it has a sense of humour.
For the first time this year there was a display from the “erotic gifts company”, Lovehoney, called “Aphrodite’s hothouse”.
In this sneak preview, I was able to go through a “Gods only” entrance to see this scarlet-coloured display of vaguely suggestive-shaped flowers.
It was designed by James Whiting who said that it was intended as a “tongue in cheek” and humourous presentation.
He said there was something inherently romantic, and sometimes erotic, about flowers that wasn’t always acknowledged.
Thousands more flower lovers will be arriving in Chelsea in the days ahead. There will be a sense of togetherness for all the gardeners gathered, after all, gnome man is an island.
Sign up here to get the latest royal stories and analysis every week with our Royal Watch newsletter. Those outside the UK can sign up here.