Written on 12 July 2021 by Courtney Manton in London
The new memorial to Diana, Princess of Wales, unveiled by her sons Princes William and Harry, is set within the beautifully-redesigned sunken garden at Kensington Palace, much loved by the Princess.
The unveiling ceremony took place on 1 July, what would have been Diana’s 60th birthday. While media reports focussed on the Dukes of Cambridge and Sussex putting aside any differences for the joint tribute, the stunning garden is also worth a look.
The garden, created by landscape designer Pip Morrison, features 4,000 flowers including 200 roses, 500 lavender bushes, 100 dahlias, 50 sweet peas, 300 tulips and 100 forget-me-nots — a favourite flower of the princess. The project began in October 2019 and took 1,000 hours of planting to complete.
The design makes use of the historic structure of the sunken garden, first laid out in 1908 for King Edward VII, on land previously used for the palace potting sheds. The new garden has a simpler layout, with deep borders and lawns and a pool to create a “calmer and more reflective setting for the statue,” according to Kensington Palace.
Says Pip Morrison: “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 compliments the statue, providing a calming place for people who visit Kensington Palace to remember the princess.”
The sculpture of Diana was created by artist Ian Rank-Broadley. It has been sited to be best viewed from the Cradle Walk in Kensington Palace grounds and is free to visit during opening hours, currently 10am to 6pm from Wednesday to Sunday.
Read more about this story in Country Living magazine and iNews.
