CELEBRATING FLOWER POWER THE DUCHESS OF EDINBURGH HAS A BLOOMING GREAT TIME AT THE ROYAL WINDSOR FLOWER SHOW

Surrounded by swathes of flowers and families day, the Duchess of Edinburgh was in her element at the opening of the Royal Windsor Flower Show at Windsor Great Park.

- SALLY MORGAN

Sophie, 58, was elegant in a colourful silk maxi dress by Etro, teamed with white wedges, and looked relaxed and happy as she toured the grounds accompanied by TV gardener Alan Titchmarsh, honorary president of the Royal Windsor Rose & Horticultural Society (RWRHS).

The showground was a celebration of this year's coronation, themed around the concept of Seeds: Show, Grow, Share.

Appropriately, centre stage went to the magnificent King's Maze show garden by Alan Williams and Mark Gregory from Landform Consultants, which had at its heart an impressive crafted crown that had also been on display at the Chelsea Flower Show in May.

LOVE FOR NATURE

The maze was a nod to the monarch's long love of gardening "I just come and talk to the plants," he said as Prince of Wales in 1986. "Very important to talk to them. They respond, I find."