At 90 years old, the Queen still has a wicked sense of humour. The monarch joked that she had been the victim of an assassination attempt – by flower – during her traditional visit to the Chelsea Flower Show on Monday.Herb gardener Jekka McVicar has recounted a conversation she had with the monarch, during which she informed the Queen that lily of the valley was once used as a poison. "She said, 'I've been given two bunches this week. Perhaps they want me dead'," Jekka revealed.
© Photo: Getty ImagesThe Queen showed off her wicked sense of humour at the flower show
The Queen also stopped to speak to veteran rose breeder David Austin, who is still working, like the royal, at the age of 90. David - who was born in February 1926, two months before the Queen - proudly showed her his latest creation, a white rose called Roald Dahl, and when he told her his age, the monarch quipped: "1926 was a very good vintage!"
One of the highlights of the Queen's visit came when she visited a cut-out of her own head, filled with flowers. The striking design, filled with hydrangeas, sweet peas, alliums, freesias, roses and other flowers, was created by florist Ming Veevers Carter for the New Covent Garden Flower Market.
"Did you take it [the image] from the stamp or the coin?" the Queen asked her. The stamp, Ms Veevers Carter replied. "You face this way." Ms Veevers Carter said: "I said, 'Did you like it?' She said, 'Yes, it's very nice.' I said 'Thank you’ because we did it especially in honour of her.
© Photo: Getty ImagesThe monarch was impressed by a cut-out of her own head filled with flowers
"I was a bit worried, in case she said, 'What the hell were you thinking of?!'"The Queen - who attended this year's show with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince Harry - also managed to impress gardening experts with her extensive knowledge during her visit.Sally Hayward, secretary of the Rhododendron, Camellia and Magnolia Group, showed the Queen a Yakushimanum rhododendron – but has revealed that the Queen already knew what it was. "I've been told she likes her rhododendrons," she said. "I was amazed. She loves it because of the pink buds."
