Alan Titchmarsh has asked for forgiveness from his late friend, Beth Chatto, after moving to a new home.
The former Gardeners’ World host, 77, recently downsized to a single-storey bungalow in Surrey after selling his £3.5 million Grade II listed Hampshire home.
The Love Your Weekend presenter said some of his most treasured plants that he’d taken with him were the ones gifted to him by horticultural legends.
Titchmarsh - who was made a CBE for services to horticulture and to charity - wrote in his Gardeners’ World column: “Call me an old romantic if you like, but as the years go by the plants in my garden that have happy memories attached to them - mainly by reason of their association - become more treasured.
“They act as a reminder of happy times and valued friendships; things that were learned in the company of gardening greats, some famous and some known only to their friends. Such plants become a kind of living biography of one’s gardening life.”
The gardener explained that when he was starting out as a “TV gardener” in the 1980s, famed plantswoman Chatto gave him variegated ground elder and variegated Japanese knotweed, which were “regarded as rare and unusual treasures in those days”.
“The knotweed possessed nothing like the vigour of its plain-leaved forbear and fizzled out 20-odd years ago. The same cannot be said for the variegated ground elder, which I did not bring from Barleywood [his old house],” he said.
Titchmarsh added: “I can only hope that Beth will forgive me. To remember her, I have a plant of the giant reed Arundo donax ‘Variegata’ in my Isle of Wight garden - spectacular, classy and statuesque.”
He also remarked that one of the “delights” of creating a new garden were the interesting plants he was gifted by horticultural friends, some of whom have worked at famed institutions like Kew and Windsor Great Park.
In June, the garden designer revealed he and his wife Alison were moving out of their vast farmhouse after more than 20 years while “they had the choice, rather than being forced out” further down the line due to health reasons.
“I cannot ever imagine loving a garden as much as the one I am leaving, which has seen my children grow up and echoed to the sounds of grandchildren... and now that I come to write these words I freely confess that my eyes are full of tears,” he penned at the time.
The Ground Force star revealed his new garden is significantly smaller at an acre and a half.
Titchmarsh initially listed his family house - which he moved into in 2002 - for £3.95 million before reducing it to £3.5 million. His new property cost £2.6 million.
The presenter, who currently hosts Love Your Garden on ITV, admitted he and Alison aren’t ready to slow down despite downsizing.
He told The Times that their plan to take Mondays and Fridays off "is not really working" and added that he has no desire to retire because he does a job that people retire to spend more time doing.
Discussing bidding farewell to his garden, he told the outlet: "I love that garden more than I've loved anything I've ever made. I've given it a quarter of a century of love and care.
"But when we hand over the key and close the gate, I'm not looking back. I can't."
He said the move from Hampshire has been "an enormous wrench" and added: "It's a pretty big number and in another 10 years' time I probably would have found where we were too much for one man.
"Four and a half acres of busy garden - and yes, I had help but help costs money."
