The statue of Diana, Princess of Wales, to be unveiled by Prince William and Prince Harry on Thursday, will stand in a garden redesigned to offer a “calmer, more reflective setting” at Kensington Palace.
Her sons are to put aside differences in their troubled relationship to focus on their mother on what would have been her 60th birthday in a small ceremony in the Sunken Garden, one of her favourite spots, where the statue will stand. It will be the first time the brothers have appeared together since the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral.
Covid restrictions mean the ceremony at Diana’s former home will be “a small event and a very personal moment for the family”, a royal source said. The sculptor Ian Rank-Broadley and garden designer Pip Morrison will be among a small number of guests.
The garden design features a number of Diana’s favourite flowers, including forget-me-nots, and many other spring and summer blooms in a variety of pastel shades. Work began in October 2019, and since then five gardeners have spent a total of 1,000 hours planting more than 4,000 flowers.
These include more than 200 roses, 100 forget-me-nots, 300 tulips, about 500 lavender plants, about 100 dahlias, about 50 sweet peas and more than 400m of fine, short cut turf have been laid.
Morrison said: “This has been a very special project to work on, as the Sunken Garden was a favourite place of Diana, Princess of Wales. We have worked carefully to ensure that the new layout and planting scheme complements the statue, providing a calming place for people who visit Kensington Palace to remember the princess.”
Graham Dillamore, the deputy head of gardens and estates at Historic Royal Palaces, said: “While she was in residence at Kensington Palace, Diana, Princess of Wales regularly admired the changing floral displays in the Sunken Garden and would always stop to talk with me and the other gardeners who cared for it.”
The Sunken Garden was created in 1908 at the instigation of King Edward VII. To mark the 20th anniversary of Diana’s death in 2017, the garden was temporarily renamed The White Garden and planted with flowers in white and soft pastel colours.
