The Queen and Prince Philip's main home is at Buckingham Palace in London, and while photos are often released from the property, a new publication by the Royal Collection Trust has revealed more about the gardens than ever before.
Written by Claire Masset with tips from the Queen's Head Gardener at Buckingham Palace, Mark Lane, the book outlines the stories behind various features in the space. Here’s everything you never knew.
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The garden's two most famous plane trees were planted by the Queen and her consort more than 150 years ago, giving them the names Victoria and Albert.
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Buckingham Palace gardens
The Rose Garden contains 24 separate beds of roses, each of which is planted with an impressive 60 rose bushes of a different variety. No two adjacent beds are of a similar colour, in order to make it as bright as possible.
When the Queen is in residence, gardeners arrange a selection of seasonal posies for her every Monday, featuring a menagerie of evergreen leaves and colouful berries.
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There are more than 1,000 trees in the gardens
The garden's waterfall, meanwhile, isn't just there to look pretty. It was actually installed to help circulate water in the lake, thereby oxygenating and revitalising the blooms and plants that live there.
There are five beehives in Buckingham Palace's gardens
As for wildlife, the island in the lake of the garden has been home to five beehives since 2008, which produce approximately 160 jars of honey a year which are then used in the royal kitchens.
Considering the effort that goes into curating the space then, it's no surprise that Buckingham Palace's gorgeous garden is the location of choice for Her Majesty's annual garden parties. Roughly 8,000 guests attend each event, and wind up consuming an average total of 27,000 cups of tea, 20,000 sandwiches and 20,000 slices of cake.
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