On Monday night, Sir David Attenborough and Queen Elizabeth II joined forces to talk about trees and the Commonwealth Canopy, a network of forest conservation projects across the Commonwealth. While most will agree that the witty duo were the highlight of the night (viewers were quick to ask for more! [1]), the one-hour documentary also shed light on what life is like behind the Buckingham Palace walls. And here's what we learned:
- The queen planted oak trees for each of her children. The gardens of Buckingham Palace are home to over 1,400 trees, and four of them were planted for the monarch's children (Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Edward, and Prince Andrew).
- She thinks banning conkers [3] for health and safety is ridiculous. "Was it recently that someone tried to stop children playing conkers? It seems to be quite a harmless battle thing."
- Wild things happen at her garden parties. While looking around the garden, the queen and David came across a small, wonky tree. "That one we won't look at because it doesn't seem to be doing very well," she says. "Somebody sat on it, I think, at a garden party."
- The queen receives a lot of plants as birthday presents. While the royals are fans of gag gifts [4], Queen Elizabeth admits to having received a lot of roses and various other plants as birthday presents. "My birthday last year was very productive of lots of plants," the queen explains. "I've been quite difficult to give presents to."
- Christmas decorations don't last long. "The problem is the children love knocking those," the queen explains as she's looking at her Christmas tree. Luckily, she has found a way to preserve them: "The great thing is to make them decorate it, and then they're a bit more careful."