The King greeted Sir David Beckham, smelled roses and nuzzled a dog which is training to sniff out plant diseases as he toured the Chelsea Flower Show with the Queen.
Crowds gathered as Charles and Camilla looked at different gardens and plants during their annual visit to the world-famous horticultural attraction on Monday.
Touring the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) event at the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London, they visited the King’s Foundation Curious Garden, a centrepiece at Chelsea that aims to encourage people to get curious about gardening.
The King collaborated on the garden’s creation with Sir David and TV gardener Alan Titchmarsh, whom he met inside a wooden hut on the site filled with gnomes, artwork, dangling plants, balls of yarn, jars of honey and even vodka.
Charles stopped to look and smell roses that were part of an arrangement featuring three different varieties of the bloom – one named after the King, a second after Titchmarsh and a new English shrub rose named after Sir David.
The former footballer was wearing his namesake white flower in his buttonhole, celebrating its launch at this year’s show after his daughter Harper commissioned it for his fiftieth birthday.
Charles greeted Sir David at one point, who could be seen saying: “Thank you sir”.
And Camilla could be heard complementing the garden with Titchmarsh, saying “This is so nice” before adding: “It looks natural, doesn’t it?”
Later, Charles could be seen greeting Dame Judi Dench with a kiss on both cheeks, as she said: “It’s wonderful to see you”.
They spoke outside the Campaign to Protect Rural England’s garden, which champions “edgelands” on urban fringes that connect people with nature and features a huge piece of art, a Gaia – Mother Nature – figure, lying across the garden, carved from a fallen Sequoia tree.
The King described the artwork as “extraordinary” while Dame Judi agreed that it was “just beautiful” before telling him it is possible to go inside the Gaia’s head.
“Apparently it’s hollow inside,” she said, before they spoke about theatre, including a production of The Tempest in Stratford-upon-Avon starring Sir Kenneth Branagh.
The King asked Dame Judi if she had seen it, and she replied: “No, I haven’t been.” She then talked about how she has turned Prospero’s humorous line “How now, moody?” into a cushion.
Charles playfully greeted a cocker spaniel called Zinc at the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s “scents and sensors” exhibit, which explores how detection dogs and technologies can help to combat plant pests and diseases.
With trainer Luke Jones, Zinc demonstrated how quickly he could locate a toy he had been trained to smell to demonstrate his advanced sense of smell for identifying diseases.
“Fantastic,” Charles could be heard saying.
The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, The Princess Royal and The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester separately toured the show on Monday evening.
This year’s event features show gardens containing such items as a Barbara Hepworth sculpture to Japanese bonsai trees.
Earlier in the day, Titchmarsh, Queen guitarist Sir Brian May, comedian Bill Bailey and presenter Dame Floella Benjamin were among those who were showing off the gnomes they painted as part of a charity auction.
It marks only the second time RHS has lifted its gnome ban in the show’s 133-year history.
Horticulturalist Frances Tophill, who designed the King’s Foundation Curious Garden with the support of the King, Sir David and Titchmarsh, said it demonstrates “human beings in collaboration”, adding that “everyone’s ideas were very aligned”.
Asked what it was like working with the King, Titchmarsh said: “Delightful”.
