Scilly Flowers - a royal visit -September 2016

On Friday 2nd September 2016 we were the proud and very excited hosts of some very special guests - William & Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

In the days leading up to our visit, the farm was given a thorough once over by the police and sniffer dogs who even checked our boxes of ribbons for anything suspicious!

On the big day we woke up to thick sea-fog and resigned ourselves to the fact that our VIP visitors wouldn't be able to make it.

Luckily by the afternoon the fog had cleared, the sun was shining and the Duke and Duchess were able to come and enjoy Scilly at it's finest. They spent the first part of their visit on Tresco before nipping over to St. Martin’s on one of the island’s jet boats where they were met on Highertown quay by a host of islanders and visitors all hoping to catch a glimpse of the Royal couple.

The Duke and Duchess took a relaxed walk from the quay to our farm, happily chatting with holiday makers and islanders alike.

Once they arrived at the farm they were given the grand tour and shown around the fields, shed and office. Kate very sensibly changed into a nice pair of flat shoes for the farm walk! They watched as our flowers were picked, checked for quality, tied and packed although they decided not to have a go themselves.

They showed a great interest in everything we were doing and chatted easily with all of our staff. William even suggested that we could have Christmas off! Although we're not sure that all our customers would be too happy about that!

As they left the farm the Duchess was presented with a pretty posy of our scented pinks by Rosie and Piran who will hopefully one day take over the running of the farm.

After a visit to the Island Hall they made their way back to our cow field which had now been transformed into a makeshift helipad where they flew home to Norfolk.