King Charles and former England footballer honoured with gnome namesakes after RHS Chelsea Flower Show chiefs lift ban on minature garden figures20:34, 18 May 2026The King and Queen joined forces with Sir David Beckham and Alan Titchmarsh at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show - and where a gnome was named Charles III after the monarch.‌Charles and Camilla were shown The RHS and The King’s Foundation Curious Garden where four small gnomes were sitting on a shelf with name tags: Charles III, for the King; Sir David, for the former England football captain; Alan, for TV gardener Titchmarsh; and Frances after the garden’s designer, Frances Tophill.‌The King and Queen attended the annual flower show where the ban on gnomes has been lifted for only the second time in its history, the previous time being 2013 to mark the flower show’s centenary.‌As she was shown round the garden, the Queen, who was wearing a bee brooch, told Titchmarsh: “This is so nice, it’s so natural”. Charles leaned forward to sniff a new rose, which has been named in honour of Sir David, an ambassador of the King's Foundation.The King was shown a flower installation created by Hamish Powell, a floral artist, who told the King that he had incorporated the King’s rose, the Beckham rose and a rose named after Alan Titchmarsh into a design.‌The garden has been designed with the ambition of sparking curiosity in the nation to encourage more people to take up gardening. A framed newspaper cutting of the King’s 1995 Christmas card hangs on the wall of the shed in the garden.It shows the King, then Prince of Wales, sitting on a bench in his garden at Highgrove with his two sons Princes William and Harry standing inside giant flower pots. The headline reads: ‘Clown Prince is a card at Christmas’.On arrival at Chelsea Flower Show, the couple were greeted by dignitaries including Keith Weed, president of the RHS, General Sir Adrian Bradshaw, governor of The Royal Hospital, Chelsea, Ben Coleman, MP, and Clare Matterson, RHS Director General. The King and Queen were also joined by the Queen’s sister Annabel Elliot, who earlier posed for a picture with Beckham.‌The Princess Royal, Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh and Duke and Duchess of Gloucester also attended the preview of the flower show before it opens to the public on Tuesday. After seeing the Foundation’s garden with the RHS, Charles and Camilla split up to view different gardens.After seeing the Japanese garden Tokonoma Garden – Samumaya no Niwa, designed by Kazuyuki Ishihara and Paul Noritaka Tange, and a garden for The Campaign to Protect Rural England’s Garden, On the Edge by Sarah Eberle where a huge sculpture of a sleeping woman had been carved from a single sequoia tree, Charles greeted Dame Judi Dench with a kiss on both cheeks and patted her arm as she curtseyed to him.‌“It’s wonderful to see you,” she said, as they appeared to have a quiet discussion about a new Royal Shakespeare Company production of The Tempest.The King was later introduced to a three-and-a-half year old cocker spaniel called Zinc who he leant down to stroke. Speaking to her handler Luke Jones from the company Cape, which trains detection dogs, Charles heard how Zinc had been trained to detect plant diseases on a scheme funded through Defra. Pointing to the dog, Charles asked: “This one only specialises in this?”‌He was told that she was a specialist in sniffing out phytophthora, which has caused crop losses around the world resulting in significant financial losses for farmers.Meanwhile, the Queen saw several other displays including The Eden Project’s Bring me Sunshine garden, which was designed by Harry Holding and Alex Michealis.Later, after viewing a display of his favourite Delphinium flowers, the King and Queen, both keen gardeners, reunited. Keith Weed told the Queen: “We have people who spend a whole day here - we have restaurants, we have shops.” “Very tempting,” Camilla replied.Article continues belowLooking at some of the stalls selling garden items, the Queen admired a colourful cockerel and after saying the weather was “very chilly” she paused by an outdoor fire stall and declared it “highly recommended”. The couple then held a private reception before departing.