A few years ago, I planted some lilies in my backyard just because I was in that kind of mood. I don’t care much for gardening, but whenever I do plant something, the plants seem to thrive for whatever reason. When I planted the lilies, I had no idea what color they were, but every year now, I get a riot of orange, white and pink lilies for about a month, and I enjoy them immensely. I’m just happy that they’re doing well and need so little maintenance.

Prince Charles is not the same way. He is gardening snob. He’s spent years – DECADES – working on his private garden at his private estate, Highgrove, and he likes everything “just so”. That includes color-coordinating his flowers. For real!! Unfortunately, Prince Charles’s garden has been infiltrated by “rogue orange azaleas”. The Prince of Wales has declared war on them!!

He has admitted talking to his plants and shrubs to encourage them to grow – but it seems that not all flowers meet Prince Charles’s approval. He has ordered his gardeners to dig up rogue orange azaleas which are ruining his plans for an idyllic country garden.

Charles is unhappy that flowers planted on either side of a path at his Highgrove estate in Gloucestershire have turned out to be a flaming orange rather than the more tranquil pink he expected.

The unwanted blooms are at odds with his plans for a garden replicating the calming colours of an Impressionist painting.

The orange azaleas have proved impossible for the Prince to avoid because they have sprung up along a route which leads to The Sanctuary, a sparsely furnished cottage at Highgrove which serves as his retreat. Charles is a frequent visitor to the property, which some critics have likened to Hagrid’s cottage from the Harry Potter films.

In 2000, The Sanctuary was blessed by the Bishop of London, the Right Reverend Richard Chartres. A spokesman for the Prince, who bought the 300-acre estate in 1980, confirmed the azaleas were being removed.

He said: ‘The Prince is a lover of plants and a keen gardener but the colours he goes for are more blue, pink, purple and burgundy. He is an artist and enjoys certain colours, and that is why there are lots of blue delphiniums, purple lupins, and white and pink roses. The orange flowers were supposed to be pink and were not expected. They are now going to be moved to another part of the garden.’

[From The Mail]

Y’all always complain that I spend too much time covering Duchess Kate and too little time covering the other royals, and this is a perfect example of why that happens – when I try to cover the other members of the British royal family, I end up writing about rogue azaleas! For the love of GOD. I guess I should give Charles some credit – it’s not liking he’s killing off the dreaded orange flowers – he’s just having them moved so he doesn’t have to look at the offensive color. I’m not a big fan of orange flowers in general, but sh-t happens, you know? My orange lilies were very pretty this year, and I’m not going to move them just because I dislike the color. But I’m not an anal retentive crown prince, I guess.

Photos courtesy of WENN.