It's not every day there's a coronation.
Many countries that were monarchies are now republics.Some that still have monarchs - like the Netherlands - have moved towards more low-key accessions and inaugurations; while others - like Japan - hold the ceremony in private, with a public parade.
Gardens for true blue republicans and red ragger communists
Whether you will be waving your flags in pride, or mentally tunnelling under Westminster Abbey with a barrel of gunpowder... we've got a selection of aristocratic plants fit for a stately home, to give your garden the royal touch.
First, Take Your Throne
If you're the Pope (unlikely, we know), you can be carried into your papal coronation on the Sedia Gestatoria - or Carrying Chair.
This silk-covered armchair is borne aloft on long poles by twelve red-coated footmen, and accompanied by giant white ostrich-feather fans on either side. In the absence of such luxury, take a seat in your favourite portable garden chair. Place it to give you the best view, and survey this king-and-queendom of royal-monikered plants which we have assembled for your noble delectation. (In other words - have a go of these beauties!)
“I am monarch of all I survey,
My right there is none to dispute,
From the centre all round to the sea,
I am lord of the fowl and the brute”
William Cowper
Add Some Purple
Purple has long been the colour of royalty (and of other dignitaries in charge, like bishops, judges, army generals, and Roman emperors) - so it's the clear choice to give your garden some imperial pizzazz.Liriopes or lilyturfs are very democratic hardworking garden plants, thriving in all kinds of conditions, and requiring very little attention to look good and perform well. Liriope Royal Purple with its dark richly-coloured flowers is the perfect choice to start off your own royal garden in style.
Give yourself a fitting royal trumpet salute when you enter your garden, with the showy native fanflower, Scaevola Purple Fanfare. The flowers are deeper in colour, and much larger in size, than other purple scaevola - as they should be for such a regal garden as yours!
And if you desire lots of colour, Royal Red buddleia will bring it on golden cushions. The large tapering flowers glow in purple-magenta-wine, and lure in pollinators - perhaps Monarch butterflies? - to feed on the honey-scented nectar.
Hebes like this purple-leaved Marie Antoinette enjoy a coastal climate - they're originally from New Zealand - and are pretty rugged and cruisy in garden situations.
Unlike this hebe's French royal namesake, who was the very definition of high maintenance!
Plus A Queen Or Two
Continuing the purple colour theme, these lovely tall native tea trees are always popular. Lavender Queen has large open flowers in a gentle lavender-purple; Burgundy Queen has large frilled double flowers in wine-purple with black hearts. The last of the jewel-like Burgundy Queen flowers are still decorating the nursery bushes in late autumn, after a long season flowering.
The stunning agapanthus Queen Mum™ from Ozbreed shades from royal blue to pure white along each petal, creating a dazzling two-tone effect on large blooms.
Why "royal blue"? Apparently the colour was created for Queen Charlotte of England, in a competition. If you could have a colour created for you in your new realm, what would it be?
And Other Royals
The Encore range of azaleas, cold- and heat-tolerant varieties which flower twice a year in spring and autumn, bring you more purple to your garden. Several of them have a regal touch in their names - like these beauties.Fuchsia-purple Autumn Royalty with large showy flowers; rose pink Autumn Monarch, gently freckled; orchid-like glowing pink Autumn Empress; and coral red double-flowered Autumn Princess will grace your garden borders with abundant colour for many weeks.
Did you know, there's even a Royal Azalea from Korea, Rhododendron schlippenbachii? In flower it is very like our most popular (and very un-royally-named) azalea, Alphonse Anderson.There's several azaleas named in honour of 'ordinary' folk like Alphonse, and Nellie, and Elizabeth, and Gretel.
Bring On The Princes
Your best bows and curtseys please, for these fine garden princes. The Purple Prince himself, Prince Rogers Nelson, would have loved this purple-streaked broad leaf cordyline Purple Prince.Showy and flamboyantly coloured, it loves to take centre stage in a tropical garden, where it can bask in the warmth and soak up the rain.The Black Prince was the nickname of Edward of Woodstock, heir to the English throne and ruthless aggressor. One of his spoils of war is a giant ruby that sits in the front of the British royal crown.
Enjoy this beautifully burnished dark succulent, Echeveria Black Prince, adorned with ruby-red flowers in season.
Far more affordable than gemstones...
The Black Prince is also the name of an Australian cicada that appears on the eastern coast in summer - so you may get a royal visitor to your garden later in the year!
Princes of Orange
Here we have a quartet of regal orange flowers, instead of royal purple : flashy anthurium Prince of Orange, handsome copper-leafed philodendron Prince of Orange, vibrantly coloured ixora Prince of Orange.The three Princes of Orange are representing the Dutch royal family, as orange is their colour. The Principality of Orange after which the monarchy takes its name is actually in the south of France, and was created by the King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I.
The Netherlands has long been the world centre of bulb growing, so you'll find a lot of spring bulbs with royal names too.
The first orange anthurium in the images is named Bugatti Royale, after Jean Bugatti's super-luxury motor car.
It is not to be confused with a Royale with Cheese, which is a fine meal to enjoy while surveying your garden realm.
Anthuriums are beautiful glamorous plants for growing indoors. They also make good outdoor plants for humid shady places, if your garden is sheltered and frost-free. They produce their heart-shaped super-shiny flowers from a very young age, even at tubestock size.
What's A True Royal?
Bonnie Prince Charlie was an Italian-born prince called Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Sylvester Severino Mario Stuart. He intended to regain the British throne as (the original) Charles III in a Jacobite rebellion. He was apparently bonny - or handsome - in his youth; as is this lovely petite grevillea. Charlie was the offspring of the Scottish House of Stuart and the Polish House of Sobieski.Likewise his namesake, the red-and-yellow Bonnie Prince Charlie grevillea, has the rosemary-leaf grevillea and the alpine grevillea as parents, bringing the best of both.It's resilient and tough, loving dry-climate southern states and flowering over a long season.
Fragrance Always Enhances An Occasion
The King of Cambodia traditionally begins his coronation by placing two wreaths of jasmine on a gold pillow. The ceremony lasts for several days, and at the end, nine Buddhist monks shower the king with jasmine buds.If you want to be showered with jasmine flowers and fragrance when you step outside (and why wouldn't you?), then plant true jasmine and star jasmine (Trachelospermum).
Shown here, star jasmine with twirly flowers; softly-coloured yellow star jasmine; polyanthum jasmine, pink in bud; and angel-wing jasmine with those long slender petals. They're all fast-growing, sweetly fragrant, and happy to be trained along a fence, over an arch, covering a pergola - wherever you, as ruler of your garden, dictate.
You'll find a palace-worth of perfumed plants on our site - click the Scented filter in each category to find your fragrant favourites.
Honour Your Predecessors
Lady Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales, was a great beauty - as are these two flowers named in her honour. Hydrangea Princess Diana has trend-setting starry multi-layered petals and a warm rose-pink colour. It prefers a cool shady spot away from the limelight, with plenty to drink.Pair it in your garden with the pristine white pandorea Lady Di. It's fast-growing, happy in sunshine, and with those big soft flowers, understatedly glamorous.
Spare a thought while you garden for an earlier Princess of Wales, Caroline of Brunswick. Planting royals is way more fun than being one, sometimes...
Header image : St Edward's Crown made from plants, St James's Park London UK, Queen's Diamond Jubilee 2012. Photo Loz Pocock
