ROYAL GARDENERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21396, 20 October 1934, Page 22

ROYAL GARDENERS

1..0VE OF BLUE FLOWERS

Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, is one of the most enterprising gardeners in the Royal family, many of whom take great pride in their gardens, and delight to work in them. When she visited the Bahamas with Lord Athlone a few months ago the Princess brought back with her a large collection of seeds of native plants and flowers, which she placed in her already beautiful garden at Brantridge Park, in Sussex. Her Royal Highness devotes a. considerable amount of her time to these gardens, and is often to be seen there at work.

As most people are aware, the Queen is a very keen gardener, though she no longer works so actively as was at one time the case, when she had her principal country home at "iork Cottage, Sandringham. Of late years Her Majesty's taste has favoured rock gardens, and two fine examples are now t-o bo seen at Sandringham and Balmoral. There is a. third at Holyrood House. Edinburgh, which the Queen admired when the Court was there recently. The Princess Royal has inherited the Queen's love of gardens and flowers generally. The grounds at her country residence at Harewood House, near Leeds, have long been famous as among the finest in the North of England, having been originally planned by that famous expert "Capability Brown." Her Royal Highness' tastes incline in the direction of sweeping borders of herbaceous flowers, and when she lived at Goldsborough Hall she had one of these composed entirely of flowers of various shades of blue. The effect was striking in the extreme, and the border was regarded as unique of its kind. The Duchess of York can be numbered among Royal gardeners. Since the Duke of York and she took possession of Royal Lodge, in Windsor Park, she has devoted much time and attention to the gardens. Here she has had a very willing assistant in Princess Elizabeth. Among the older generations of our Royal ladies Princess Beatrice has alwavs taken great pride in her gardens at' Carisbrook Castle, in the Isle of Wight. It may be recalled, too, that Princess Beatrice had some share in the laying-out of the gardens at Balmoral.