Petal pusher

The former popular chanteuse Kim Wilde  has reinvented herself as a presenter on gardening matters for the BBC. But she still has a few problems distinguishing her flora, as demonstrated during her coverage of the Chelsea Flower Show.

During one panicky moment just before the cameras began to roll, she realised that she could not identify some of the plants on display and grabbed an expert standing nearby in the form of Adrienne Wild, the editor of Your Garden magazine.

“She tugged my arm and begged me to tell her the name of a fluffy flower just before she was about to start filming,” says Adrienne. “I felt rather sorry for her – I should have thought the Beeb would have provided her with some researchers.”

The horticultural expert was happy to reveal that the fluffball was a caster oil plant. And suddenly everything in Kim’s garden was rosy again.