Highgrove gardeners quit due to feeling 'overwhelmed and underpaid' by Charles
Gardeners are leaving their jobs at the King’s Highgrove Gardens amid low pay and too many demands from Charles, according to a report.
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Charles oversees the gardens at his Gloucestershire retreat, which he has transformed over the past 45 years, but according to a report in The Sunday Times, he has lost 11 of 12 gardeners since 2022.
Of the 11 gardeners who have left, two were heads of gardens and one had served Charles for many years.
The newspaper said complaints among staff include poor conditions, such as pay as low as minimum wage.
According to the report, Charles told staff to move a single ragwort from the perimeter of his swimming pool, and said gardeners’ failure to cultivate his delphiniums had caused him great disappointment.
One person failed his probation after it emerged he lacked knowledge about a particular flower, the newspaper said.
The King reportedly said of him “don’t put that man in front of me again”.
It has been reported that Charles knew of staff shortages at Highgrove, and after the invasion of Ukraine wrote a note proposing war refugees could be recruited to help.
The King’s Foundation, Charles' charity, which is the custodian of Highgrove Gardens, oversees public access to Highgrove through its ticketed garden tours.
The Sunday Times reported that in late 2023 one member of staff at Highgrove complained about the gardens’ management, adding the team was overwhelmed, under-resourced and struggling to fulfil the many requests from Charles.
Following this, The King’s Foundation commissioned an external investigation and, according to the report, it found evidence of “staff shortages” and “poor” management practices.
It recommended “management training for all managers”, “mental health support and counselling” and a pay review, the Sunday Times said.
Staff at the gardens have received pay rises each year since 2022 totalling between 15% and 19% cumulatively, it is understood.
A King’s Foundation spokeswoman said: “At The King’s Foundation, we take staff welfare extremely seriously and strive to be an exemplary employer. We are proud to regularly report very high satisfaction rates in our annual staff survey.
"Our staff turnover is well below the national average, as is the number of formal grievances raised. For the gardening team at Highgrove specifically, we regularly review guidance from the Professional Gardeners Guild for pay benchmarking.
"Highgrove has also seen many positive developments since The King’s Foundation became the charitable custodian of the gardens. Since 2022, the operating profit has more than doubled, a new education facility teaching traditional heritage skills to hundreds of students has been established, and visitor numbers continue to reach over 40,000 annually."