Every Royal Bride Has a Sprig of This 1 Flower in Her Bouquet

The bride's bouquet contained white orchids and, in keeping with royal tradition, a sprig of myrtle. Including myrtle in the wedding bouquet is a practice that was started by Queen Victoria and has been followed by every royal bride since. The cutting is even taken from a bush that was grown from the sprig in Queen Victoria's own bouquet. For the queen's wedding to Prince Philip, Westminster Abbey was decorated with white lilies, chrysanthemums, carnations, roses, camellia, and ivy — and for the reception at Buckingham Palace, the tables were set with vases of pink and white carnations.

The theme of Kate and William's wedding was The Language of Flowers — a Victorian practice where different blooms were each given their own unique meaning so that coded nosegays could be exchanged between courting couples. The bride's small shield-shaped bouquet contained lily of the valley (symbolizing a return to happiness), hyacinths (constancy), and ivy (fidelity) as well as Sweet William in tribute to her groom. Meanwhile the four countries that make up the UK were all represented in the lace of her dress, with roses for England, thistles for Scotland, daffodils for Wales, and shamrocks for Northern Ireland.

The interior of Westminster Abbey was designed to create a living space, with hornbeam and maple trees lining the aisle, and the surfaces and vases filled with white and cream seasonal spring flowers including blossom, rhododendrons, wisteria, euphorbias, lilac, and azaleas — most of which came from Windsor Castle gardens.

Diana's waterfall bouquet of gardenias, stephanotis, orchids, lily of the valley, roses, freesia, veronica, spider lilies, and ivy reportedly weighed two kilos, while the interior of St. Paul's was filled with 300 pots of hydrangeas, lilies, and campanulas.

Sophie stuck with royal tradition for her big day and opted for an all-ivory bouquet that contained roses, calla lilies, stephanotis, lily of the valley, and freesia. The bride later had a portion of the bouquet preserved and framed for display in her drawing room.

The queen's granddaughter married in Edinburgh, Scotland, and she carried a bouquet of white calla lilies, silver senecio, lily of the valley, hydrangeas, and, in a nod to the Scottish location, alpine thistles. The bridesmaids carried smaller versions, accented with blue thistles, while the venue of Cannongate Kirk was filled with stargazer lilies and beech branches, and the outside was decorated with roses, carnations, stocks, hydrangea, eucalyptus, and more alpine thistles.

It has been revealed that every Monday when the queen returns from her weekend at Windsor Castle, she is welcomed back with a small posy of seasonal flowers that have been cut from the gardens for her desk. In the colder months, this includes honeysuckle, Winter jasmine, and blue-black berries.

In the Scottish Highlands, the landscape is all about the purple-white heather, which runs rampant all over the estate. The royal tartan is even taken from the color of the heather, and when Princess Anne married for the second time it was in Scotland, and she carried a modest posy of Balmoral heather.

The prince is passionate about building up wildflower meadows across the UK, since they have steeply declined in number since the Second World War. He was responsible for the planting of a vast wildflower meadow at Highgrove 35 years ago, where blooms include ox-eye daisies, buttercups, dandelions, poppies, camassia, ragged robin, yellow rattle, lent lilies, and ice follies.

Prince Harry seems to have inherited his father's love of expressing himself with plants and flowers. He set up the charity Sentebale to help children affected by HIV/AIDS in the African nation of Lesotho and named it in memory of his mother after the Lesotho word for forget-me-not. The charity has twice exhibited a garden at the annual RHS Chelsea Flower show, and Harry has direct input into the planting. The first year the garden was full of forget-me-nots, and last year's Hope in Vulnerability garden had a warm color scheme of orange African poppies, kniphofias, aloes, and grasses to represent the burnt reddish landscape of Africa.

The duchess has chosen to be patron of a charity called Floral Angels, which takes donations of fresh flowers from weddings and corporate events and redistributes them to assorted care homes, hospices, and women's refuges.

Kate and Charlotte were equally taken with a bouquet the duchess received when they departed Canada last year. Kate has never divulged her favourite flower, but she is a fan of the fragrance White Gardenia Petals by Illuminum — she wore it on her wedding day.

Her Majesty always remains tight-lipped about her likes and dislikes, but last year, celebrated gardner and royal favorite Alan Titchmarsh revealed after making a TV program about the gardens at Buckingham Palace: "She loves what we would call English cottage garden flowers — unostentatious flowers, not things that are too exotic."

It's been said the queen's favorites are carnations, and not only did she have them at her wedding, but Prince Philip presented her with a bouquet of them after she gave birth to Prince Charles.