King Charles left Alan Titchmarsh somewhat tongue-tied when he made a five-word comment (Image: Getty)
King Charles once left Alan Titchmarsh somewhat tongue-tied when he made a five-word comment during a royal ceremony. As one of the nation’s most popular gardening personalities, Alan has given a “lot of ladies a lot of pleasure”, or so said the late Queen Elizabeth, but it seems his standing with the royals only improved when he met her son.
The late monarch’s memorable comment is said to have surfaced when the Ground Force icon received his MBE more than 25 years ago, but Alan has since enjoyed something of a royal promotion. In 2024, Alan was left “thrilled and delighted” to be recognised in the King’s New Year Honours List for services to horticulture and charity, and would receive the higher ranking Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).
It would be on this occasion that he encountered the King, who issued a kindly remark to Alan that left him rather lost for words and unable to “think fast enough” to give his desired response.
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Alan was left “thrilled and delighted” to be recognised in the King’s New Year Honours List (Image: Getty)
As reported by The Mail’s Richard Eden, Alan said: “He grinned at me and laughed and said, ‘You’re on your way up’. It was the sweetest thing to say. I didn’t think fast enough to say, ‘I think I’ve probably peaked’.”
Speaking at the time of the CBE announcement, the former BBC Gardeners’ World star described the discovery as a “teary moment” and noted that he was in his “61st year of gardening for a living”.
Alan, who has been the president of Perennial (previously known as the Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Society) since 2004, said: “I’ve been an MBE for 25 years, so I kind of thought that was…I’ve been very happy with that.”
In other news, Alan recently shared some valuable tips on how to remove weeds from gravel paths and patios without using any chemical products or spending any cash.
Speaking in a weed-focused episode of his YouTube channel, Gardening With Alan Titchmarsh, the horticultural expert revealed how to tackle this problem using a garden hoe and a warm day.
Alan was unable to “think fast enough” to give his desired response (Image: Getty)
He said: “What you are trying to do with your Dutch hoe is separate the [weed] from its roots and that way it will cook once it’s exposed to sunshine.”
All you need to do is run a hoe over the gravel and slice the weeds at the base. Next, leave the uprooted weed be and keep the gravel off the roots, with the sun subsequently dehydrating it.
Alan said: “Don’t try and dig with the hoe. Remember, you’re always skimming. The more of the weed root you can expose to the drying rays of the sun, the quicker they will die.”
He added: “When it comes to patios and terraces made of stones…if you do find there’s soil between your paving slabs and weeds are growing there, a patio knife is really quite useful.”
Simply run the knife between the joints and allow the weeds to rest where they fall, and the sun can then dry them.
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