Negros Occidental Garden Club members were treated to a private viewing on Saturday of a BBC documentary film featuring Prince Charles and the famous gardens at Highgrove House, his English country estate.

The film was presented by the Sampaguita Group at their  monthly meeting at the Sugarland Hotel, a press release from Robert Harland said.

The Highgrove gardens, covering some six hectares, are a showcase for the Prince's interest in traditional and organic growing methods.

In the film, the Prince provides celebrity British gardener and broadcaster, Alan Titchmarsh, with unprecedented access to the gardens and gives a remarkably informal and candid interview thereby offering a rare insight into a royal passion, the press release said.

The Prince bought Highgrove in 1980. It came with six hectares of almost featureless garden. In the ensuing 30 years, Prince Charles set about transforming the landscape into a beautiful array of diverse gardens.

Highgrove is an acclaimed promoter of the organic movement, both in terms of environmental sustainability and by its sheer natural beauty, the press release said.

Tirchmarsh says the gardens are full of "floral pageantry, with vivid color composition, buzzing bees and a heady mixture of scents".  He adds that by his reckoning Prince Charles is the best royal gardener Britain ever had, both by dint of knowledge and practical skills, the press release said.*

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