Forget-me-not: London palace’s garden redesigned for Diana statue

LONDON (Reuters) – A favourite spot of the late Princess Diana, the Sunken Garden at her former London home Kensington Palace has been redesigned to house a statue in her honour to be unveiled on Thursday by her sons, Princes William and Harry.

The palace said the garden had been redesigned to create a “more reflective” setting for the memorial to the princess, who died in a Paris car crash in 1997.

“This has been a very special project to work on, as the Sunken Garden was a favourite place of Diana, Princess of Wales,” Pip Morrison, who designed the new layout, said in a statement.

“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.”

Work on the Sunken Garden started in 2019 and has taken 1000 hours of planting, involving more than 4000 of Diana’s favourite flowers including 100 forget-me-nots and 300 tulips.

The garden was originally created in 1908 at the instigation of King Edward VII in an area previously occupied by potting sheds and greenhouses.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Janet Lawrence)