King Charles’ Rude Exchange With Famed Gardener Resurfaces Amid Reports of Mass Staff Exodus
It’s no secret that King Charles is a gardening enthusiast, but recent accounts from staff have painted him as a challenging employer to work for. Last month, a bombshell report claimed his unrealistic demands forced 11 of Highgrove’s 12-member gardening team to quit. As fresh allegations continue to emerge, royal author Tom Bower's past claims about the King have resurfaced, revealing a troubling pattern.
Bower lifted the lid on Charles’s alleged rude behavior toward his gardeners in his book, Rebel King. As reported by the Daily Mail, he recounted an incident when award-winning gardener Sir Roy Strong had a 'testy' encounter with the monarch during a visit to Highgrove for advice. Bower penned, "Roy Strong was summoned to advise on the cultivation of hedges. He spent days with his own gardener, perfecting his ideas." He continued, "At the end, he submitted his employee's bill for £1,000 and was never asked to return, or even thanked. Strong had personally inscribed a copy of his book on gardening to Charles, but it was left in a waiting room rather than included in the Prince's library."
The royal author noted that Charles's shady behavior with Strong wasn't the first time he allegedly requested unpaid advice and labor. He wrote, "To make up a floragim (a book of paintings of Highgrove's flowers), Charles recruited over 20 artists to paint two or three flowers each, for free. Similarly, he approached Jonathan Heale, a woodcut artist, for some of this work, which he expected to be donated as a gift."
Echoing Bower’s claims of Charles’s rude treatment of his staff, Jack Stooks, a former senior gardener at Highgrove, told the New York Post, "The world of gardening is known for its low pay, and I ended up leaving Highgrove after 20 years... I had a back operation and, for want of a better word, did experience getting burnt out as a result, as you would doing certain jobs regularly." Stooks’s remarks came after a scathing report by The Sunday Times revealed that, as of July 20, gardeners and staff at Highgrove were earning the minimum wage of the UK. Among the 11 staff who stepped down were two heads of gardens, a deputy head gardener, and a longtime employee who had worked with Charles for decades.
The report also shed light on the toxic work conditions that the King allegedly subjected his gardeners to while they were working at Highgrove. Staffers claimed that the King's high standards often led to multiple rounds of feedback on horticulture and planting, leaving them feeling overwhelmed. In response to the accusations, a spokesperson for the King's Foundation told PEOPLE, "Our staff turnover is well below the national average, as is the number of formal grievances raised. For the gardening team at Highgrove specifically, we regularly review guidance from the Professional Gardeners Guild for pay benchmarking."