Beckham teams up with King and Queen at Chelsea Flower Show
The King and Queen joined forces with David Beckham at the Chelsea Flower Show before the launch of a joint initiative to encourage more young people to work in horticulture.
Beckham, who was last year named an ambassador of the King's Foundation, met the King and Queen at the Highgrove stand in the world-famous event in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea.
The former England footballer, who previously swapped bee-keeping tips with the King, is backing the foundation's new campaign.
The project, to be launched later this year, is designed to inspire young people to take up careers in horticulture.
It will also be backed by Alan Titchmarsh, the TV presenter and King's Foundation ambassador who joined Beckham and the King at RHS Chelsea.
The King carried a traditional country fair walking stick. He 'loves' such crooks and has collections of them at all his residences, a source said.
On display at the Highgrove shop stand was the King's Rose, a new pink-and-white bloom named in the monarch's honour.
The flower was created by David Austin Roses in collaboration with the King's Foundation, and has been carefully nurtured by the King's gardeners at Highgrove for the last three years.
The King was due to pull back a curtain to officially open the shop and reveal the roses, proudly displayed in a Highgrove wicker basket. For every rose sold, £2.50 will be donated to the foundation.
The name was inspired by David Austin's first encounter with the King, then Prince of Wales, at Chelsea in the 1990s, when they discovered that they had both grown the similarly-striped Ferdinand Pichard as the first rose in their garden.
The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester also toured RHS Chelsea on Monday evening, as did Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.
Among the gardens on the King's tour was the Hospice UK: Garden of Compassion, which draws on the spirit of Mediterranean landscapes to show thoughtfully designed spaces can help provide comfort and calm at the end of life.
The King was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer last year and continues to receive weekly treatment.
Beckham has become increasingly close to the royals since becoming an ambassador for the King's Foundation.
In December, both David and his fashion designer wife Victoria joined the King and Queen at a state banquet at Buckingham Palace, held in honour of the Qatari ruler.
In February, the couple were among the King's guests at a black tie dinner at Highgrove to celebrate Anglo-Italian relations and the following month, Victoria Beckham was invited to Buckingham Palace for a Women of the World event hosted by the Queen.
Beckham is also on friendly terms with the Prince of Wales, whom he joined last October to celebrate the replacement of London's ageing air ambulance helicopters.
His latest appearance alongside the King coincides with a seemingly bitter family feud which has seen Beckham's elder son, Brooklyn, increasingly estranged from his parents and siblings.
A source close to Brooklyn, 26, told the Telegraph last week that he and his wife, Nicola Peltz-Beckham, the daughter of Nelson Peltz, the US billionaire, feel that they have no meaningful private connection with the family and that he has been made to feel like an 'idiot' and 'stupid'.
The younger Beckhams were recent guests at a Montecito party attended by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, where Peltz, 30, and Meghan were said to have found 'common ground' over being cast as meddling American wives breaking up Britain's most famous families.
The source told The Telegraph the young couple had 'found Harry and Meghan to be particularly kind, caring and generous' at the gathering, hosted by Brian Robbins, a neighbour of the Sussexes in Montecito and the chief executive of Paramount, the media company.
The encounter drew comparisons between both family rifts, with the Sussexes still similarly estranged from the rest of the Royal family.
Monty Don's dog-themed garden
Meanwhile, the King and Queen viewed several gardens at RHS Chelsea, including the RHS and BBC Radio 2 Dog Garden, designed by Monty Don.
The garden, designed with dogs in mind, features grass areas for dogs to enjoy and a large tree providing shade. The brick paths are inscribed with the names of dogs belonging to Radio 2 presenters and RHS ambassadors, as well as Bluebell, the Queen's Jack Russell Terrier, Moley, her new puppy, and Snuff, the King's dog.
The garden will be transplanted to Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, of which the Queen is patron, when the flower show ends.
The King also visited the King's Trust Garden, inspired by the potential of the more than one million young people supported by the charity since it was founded in 1976.
The garden showcases the ability of seeds to adapt and flourish in hostile environments, drawing parallels with the resilience of young people who can overcome adversity and thrive when given the right support.
Another stop on the royal tour was the Wildlife Trust's British Rainforest Garden, designed to evoke the wild and wet woodlands that once swathed the British west coast.
Beckham also visited the London Square Chelsea Pensioners Garden, designed by Dave Green, an accessible and secluded space to be based at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, home to the famous Chelsea Pensioners.
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