Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Honored Princess Diana By Planting Her Favorite Flowers
Ever since they got married in 2018, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have found small but meaningful ways to honor the late Princess Diana. The couple recently paid tribute to Harry’s late mother on the 23rd anniversary of her death during a visit to the Preschool Learning Center in Los Angeles in a way that green thumbs especially will appreciate. They planted Princess Diana’s favorite flowers, forget-me-nots, in the garden, with the school sharing snippets from their visit on Instagram.
The new California residents spent time with the young students on Monday, August 31st, helping them to replant their learning garden, a back-to-school activity enjoyed by students and teachers every fall, according to the Assistance League of Los Angeles Instagram page. The organization works with impoverished children in the community to provide food, clothing, and supplies to those in need.
People reports that Harry specifically brought forget-me-not seeds with him to plant in the garden, with the couple also planting petunias, California wildflowers, tomatoes, squash, sweet peas, and more with the preschoolers. But it’s the perennial picks that provided a special touch, since the blue blooms were said to be Diana’s favorite flower.
In 2017, Vogue reported that after her death two decades earlier, the staff at Kensington Palace scooped up more than 60 million individual blooms brought by those mourning her untimely death at age 36. While fresh flowers were donated to hospitals and nursing homes, decaying bouquets were used as fertilizer in the Palace Garden adjacent to her former home.
The gardens prominently feature forget-me-nots due to her affinity for them. Sean Harkin, the head gardener at Kensington Palace, told Vogue, “Earl Spencer, Princess Diana’s brother, gave some forget-me-nots to her when they were younger. They stayed with her as one of her favorite flowers, so it was important to include them.” And of course, their name signifies the fact that the late royal will never be forgotten, particularly by her family.
Harry and Meghan have used the wildflower to pay tribute to Princess Diana before: Forget-me-nots were included in Meghan’s bouquet at the royal wedding, and they were prominently featured in the couple’s Mother’s Day tribute in 2019, shortly after baby Archie was born. They shared one of the first photos of their newborn, writing in their caption that they were “Paying tribute to all mothers… past, present, mothers-to-be, and those lost but forever remembered. We honor and celebrate each and every one of you.” Sentebale, Harry’s Africa-based charity, is also named after the flower.