CHELSEA'S A TREAT FOR THE GREEN KING

King Charles indulges a personal passion as he begins the summer by visiting the Chelsea Flower Show with Queen Camilla

- REBECCA RUSSELL

A busy summer for the royal family began in spectacular fashion, with the return of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Honouring more than a century of royal tradition, King Charles and Queen Camilla last week attended the first day of the world’s most famous flower show, meeting the gardeners and local schoolchildren.

While the monarch, 75, is well-known for his love of the outdoors, there was an added sense of emotion, as this year’s event came shortly after doctors had granted him permission to return to public duties following hospital treatment for cancer.

Speaking exclusively to OK!, former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond says that being able to indulge in his passion once again will be highly beneficial to the King. “I think it’s pretty well established that stress is cancer’s friend. And it is certainly well known that being out in the open air, pottering in the garden, striding across the moors, is the perfect antidote to stress,” she says.

“Charles has loved gardens and gardening since he was a boy. His gardens at Highgrove and the gardens he is creating at Sandringham are truly his passion. I’ve been with him in his garden at Highgrove and seen for myself how much it means to him.”

She says his visit to the flower show with the Queen, 76, holds particular significance. “Charles believes so deeply that we must learn to live in harmony with nature and protect it for future generations,” she says. “It is an ethos that has been embraced in recent years by many gardeners who exhibit at Chelsea, and so I think he gets quite a kick out of seeing his long-held and once derided philosophy put into practice.”