When we imagine a royal event, we think of banquet halls laid with expensive silverware all perfectly measured to place, and grand ballrooms with polished banisters beneath glittering chandeliers. It’s clear that, before the royals, dignitaries and esteemed guests have graced the rooms, an invisible team of genius hands has been at work to make everything picture-perfect. However, what many of us might not think about, is that the same level of care and attention is taken for outdoor events and spaces.
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The Princess of Wales greeting guests at a garden party in 2025.
At Buckingham Palace garden, the largest private garden in London, the motto is ‘not a leaf out of place’, according to royal gardener, Clare Midgley Adam. During garden party season, she explains they see more than 35,000 guests in the garden and that ‘the team clears up every single leaf, so for the first guests coming through the garden, everything is perfect. That is the bar we set ourselves.’ To prepare, they ‘mow all the lawns that week and clip all the edges and weed the flowerbeds’ before removing every final imperfection.
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Chris Jackson
The Royal Family are well-known for their love of the outdoors, and Clare says she and the other gardeners had a lovely tradition in place with the late Queen Elizabeth II. ‘Every Monday, when Her Majesty was in residence, we would send up a posy of what was looking good at that time of year,’ says Clare. ‘Through it she’d get an idea of what was happening in the garden. What went in it depended on the season: in winter there would be honeysuckle, maybe some snowdrops, even dogwood stems. There would also be lots of holly with some berries.’
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While Clare says she has ‘the best job in the world’, it does come with a lot of work. There’s a herbaceous border over 150 metres high, 1000 trees, 25 rosebeds and countless more shrubs, flowers and plants to keep an eye on over the garden’s vast 39 acres. The nature and longevity of the garden means there’s also a lot of organising to be done.
‘As well as the gardening, there is also the planning; bedding that will be there for a year only and long-term planning for 100, 150 and 200 years’ time,’ says Clare. Despite the workload, she says her work is ‘exciting’ and is what she’s always dreamed of doing.
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