Prince Charles has been a keen gardener for 25 years and his garden at Highrove House is considered a flagship for the organic movement. Now it seems his green-fingered influence has extended to Buckingham Palace itself where the Queen is on the lookout for an organic gardener.
An advert for the £13,500-a-year post says the successful applicant will help phase out the use of pesticides from the Palace's gardens, improving "environmental and conservation practices" as well as maintaining a new organic vegetable garden at Clarence House.
The candidate picked for the job will no doubt find plenty of inspiration in the Prince of Wales' latest book, The Elements Of Organic Gardening, in which he gives practical advice on converting to organic methods using the examples of royal residences Highgrove, Clarence House and Birkhall in Scotland.
Charles is ably assisted by his wife at Birkhall, where she is "closely involved with the planting and the garden's progress" and uses an extensive cutting garden for flower arrangements at the house, reveals the Prince's website.