There are many traditions associated with Jubilee celebrations and a rather special, if lesser known, one has just linked Britain’s second Jubilee Queen to its first.
A hebe bush at Bishops Gardens in Norwich grew from a sprig taken from Queen Victoria’s wedding bouquet. Now, every time her great, great granddaughter marks a Jubilee, cuttings from that same bush are taken and sent to her to mark her celebrations.
The current Bishop of Norwich, Graham Usher, helped cut the sprigs himself before packing them away carefully to be sent first class to Windsor Castle so that Her Majesty receives them ahead of her Platinum Jubilee weekend which gets under way on June 2.
Hebe is a shrub native to New Zealand. It produces purple and white flowers although these don’t usually bloom until later in the summer.
Victoria was the first British queen regnant to mark a Jubilee, celebrating the 50th anniversary of her reign in 1887 before creating the term ‘Diamond Jubilee’ for her festivities in 1897. Her reign was the longest in British history until 2015 when she was overtaken by Elizabeth II.
The hebe isn’t the only recent link between the two Jubilee monarchs. The Queen has recently spent time at Balmoral to rest before her Jubilee celebrations, following the lead of Victoria who spent the final days before both her anniversary festivities at the Scottish retreat.
The Platinum Jubilee, celebrating 70 years of The Queen’s reign, starts on June 2 with Trooping the Colour and ends on June 5 with the Platinum Pageant.
