Home sweet home

Highgrove’s weeping silver lime trees flower for two weeks of the year, filling the house and gardens with a sweet, heady fragrance.

“Everybody there, including the King, looks forward it,” Julie Pluchet, senior perfumer with British luxury brand Penhaligon’s, tells HELLO!.

The trees’ shimmering foliage and richly scented yellow flowers form part of the estate’s lush living fabric and it’s said that during those balmy two weeks, Highgrove’s rooms are filled with the smell of “earthly sunshine”.

Now this midsummer blossoming at His Majesty’s much-loved family home in Gloucestershire (above, the then Prince of Wales there in 1986) has been captured in a perfume – sustainably crafted, of course, and with the royal seal of approval. Royal warrant holder Penhaligon’s worked closely with the King to create Highgrove Bouquet eau de parfum (£160 for 100ml; visit highgrovegardens.com) and sales will raise money for his The Prince’s Foundation and its charitable work.

“We think it’s the first time weeping silver lime has been translated into a fragrance – as the main note, at least,” Julie tells us.

“I would describe it as somewhere between orange blossom and mimosa, but it has lots of different facets. It’s a floral note that is warm and sensual. It’s also very green and has a powdery texture.”

When it came to structuring the fragrance, Julie had to re-create the weeping silver lime note from scratch – there were no off-the-shelf components.

Julie visited Highgrove with a group of analysts specialising in Headspace technology, which samples the air around a flower to capture its aroma chemicals. This then provides an olfactory “snapshot” that the perfumer can analyse and use as a reference to make the raw material.

“There’s a small window to capture the smell – we got the call at the end of July saying: ‘You have to come now!’” Julie says.

The technology means the plant isn’t damaged, she adds: “A bell jar is placed over the