Breaking Down Barriers

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Photos:

Brochure Cover & Logo The RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2022 Monday July 4-Saturday July 9th 2022; The DQG @The_RHS Photo By Luke MacGregor: DaisY The DQG At The ‘Protect Our Playground Allotment’ By Plastic Free North Devon (Diary of A Lady Gardener). Opposite Photo By Oliver Dixon: ‘The Turfed Out Garden’ By Hamzah-Adam Desai of Tone & Manner Garden Designs

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TheOrator.Press (TO.P) Was Thrilled To Be At The Press Launch of The RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival Monday July 4th 2022. A Big Thank You To All The Team There That Accomodated And Included Us As Press Newcomers, Especially Media Leaders Ed & Emma.

There Were A Number of Celebrities Milling Around And Taking In The Flowers. The Gardens Looked Great, The Stalls Were Plentiful, And There Was A Buzz In The Air. Amongst The Famous Faces Enjoying The Floral Festival Was The Adptly Named ‘Daisy’ aka The Drag Queen Gardener. She Was A Breath of Fresh Air And Kindly Granted (TO.P) An Interview In The Press Tent. She Also Introduced Us To Her Mother, And Her Lover, As The Trio Were Out And About On A Royal Floral Fun Day Out.

The World Wide Call For Social Justice Reform Following The Police Brutality Murder of George Floyd During Lockdown Has Seen Alot of Corporate Bodies Review Their Operations And Look More Closing At The Concept of Inclusion. And This Is Important. Daisy Made History Last Month As The First Drag Queen To Be Featured On Gardeners’ World (Live In Birmingham).

Her Mum Revealed The Logistics Company She Works For Has Embraced Her Son. And We Discovered During The Course of Our Interview With Daisy’s Lover, Nico, That An Inclusion Policy Operates At Waitrose. Good To Know!

Nature’s Bounty of Fruit & Flowers Is Naturally Beautiful, Diverse & Fabulous (Photos: pexels.com)

Nature’s Bounty of Fruit & Flowers Is Naturally Beautiful, Diverse & Fabulous (Photos: pexels.com)

The DQG Makes History By Being The First Gardening Drag Queen On Gardeners’ World Live TV

TO.P: Hi DaisY Thank You For Agreeing To Talk To @theorator.press.on.insta Please Kindly Introduce Yourself To Our Readers, Associates And Supporters.

DQG: Well Hello Darlings. I Am Daisy. Also Known As The Drag Queen Gardener (@TheDragQueenGardener).

TO.P: And We Are Today At The Royal Hampton Court Palace Flower Show

DGQ: We Are Yes And It’s Lovely To Be Here. It Was This Flower Show That I Came To Just A Year Ago. Stormed In. Well, More Strutted In, In Full Drag And I Just Wanted To Show The Gardening World That You Know, It Can Be Glam, It Can Be Fun And Kind of Like Just  Break Down The Barrier That Is The Stereotypical Gardener.

TO.P: That’s Fantastic. And How Are You Finding The Show, The Event And Long Have You Been Here Thus Far?

DQG: I’ve Been Here About An Hour So Far. It’s Just Absolutely Lovely. I  Love Hampton Because It’s So Much More Family Friendly. It’s A Lot More Relaxed And You Can Really Kind of Have A Look At The Show. And There’s So Much To See. It’s Such A Big Event Isn’t It?

TO.P: Yes. But With Just A Little Less Madness. (Even Though We Absolutely Love It).                       

DQG: Yes.  It’s Much More Kind of Relaxed.  And You Can Just Chill. And You Can Kind of Go At Your Own Pace. Chelsea Can Be A Lot. Especially When You’re In Drag. I Mean You Can’t Really Stop Because You Kind of Get Cornered At Every Angle. But It’s Lovely Because You Can Really Go Into The Gardens As Well, Which I Just Think Is Really Nice. Especially If You’re Trying To Learn More About The Plants Or If You See Something, There’s Always Someone To Ask As Well If You’re Really Curious About A Certain Plant.

TO.P:  What’s The Feedback Been Since You Appeared On The Show (Gardener’s World Live, Birmingham) Because You Were Saying You Wanted To Encourage Other Gardeners Who Felt Like You or Who Felt Like They Were Inhibited, And You Wanted To Show They Can Be Accepted. How’s It Been?

DQG: It’s Been An Overwhelming Amount of Support. It’s Been Just Lovely. Seriously. Both As A Drag Queen Trying To Kind of Break Into An Industry And Trying To Take Drag More Mainstream And Bring The Queer Community Into Gardening, Which Isn’t Something That’s Really Celebrated or Uplifted Majorly, So That’s Quite A Big Mission of Mine.

But Also, I’m Not Going To Lie I Get A lot of Hate Because I’m A Drag Queen. But You Know What I Take It Over My Head Because As Far As I’m Concerned There Are Plenty of People Growing Up Out There That Need Someone To Look Up To. And Whether They Are  A Child or Whether They Are Someone In Their Eighties…

TO.P: Well Dame Kelly Holmes Only Came Out Just Recently…

DQG: Absolutely, I Think This Is Why It’s Important. So When The Haters Come You Can Push Me But I’ll Always Push Back Harder Because It’s Something I Feel So Passionately About. But From A Gardening Perspective It’s Bringing That Fun And That Zest Into Gardening And You Know If You Can’t Enjoy A Fabulous Drag Queen How Are You Supposed To Enjoy A Fabulous Flower Show of A Fabulous Garden.

I Mean At The End of The Day Gardening Is For Everyone And I Just Hope That When People See Me They Can Take That As Well. It’s Breaking Down The Barriers And The Norms. For Me Growing Up I Always Saw A Gardener As Some Old Man Teetering Along With A Wheelbarrow. But Now I Kind of Hope With My Kind of Presence I Can Show, Especially To The Younger Generation, That Gardening Is Fun, It’s Good For Your Mental Well-Being. That’s The Kind of Message I Want To Put Across To The Younger Generation As Well.

The Lavender Look

Drag Queen Poster Girl For Inclusive Gardening, Dasiy, The Drag Queen Gardener, Strikes A Pose And Takes A Stand For The Next Generation (Photos: TheOrator.Press)

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TO.P: Can You Please Talk Us Through Your Wonderful Outfit. Where Did You Get This Number or Was It Designed Especially?

DQG: No. It’s A Jumpsuit I Bought Myself But I’ve Tappered It In. I’m Learning How To Sew So That I Can Sew More Drag Outfits. I’ve Been Sinching It In At The Waist. My Bag I’ve Rhinestoned With The DQG – The Drag Queen Gardener, And I Actually Did This On The Car Ride Here.

TO.P: No.

DQG: Yes.

TO.P: That’s Impressive.

DGQ: I’m Kind of Giving You That Lilac, Floral, 60s, Glam.

TO.P: Lavender? The Lavender Look?

DQG: Always The Lavender Look! Yes.  I Love Lavender.  I Always Think It’s Kind of Daisy’s Colour You Know.

TO.P: And Where Did You Find The Outfit Originally, The Jumpsuit? (Picture Gallery: First Picture Four Pictures: TO.P Photo Editor. Fifth @dragqueen_gardener).

DQG: Oooh! I Actually Got It From ASOS. That’s What I Mean.  It’s About Finding Something And Adding More To It. With Gardeners World I’ve Just Been So Busy. But I Managed To Get This And I Thought What Can I Do With This. How Can I Turn This Into Drag. The Gloves! The Bow At The Back! And I’ve Added In Some Other Bits As Well Just To Give It A Bit of Va Va Voom.

There Is A New Face In Gardening Darling And You Are Just Seeing The Beginning of It.

TO.P: So Do You Perform Anywhere. Can We Come And See You?

DQG: Yes. At The Moment I Am Working On The Gardening. But When That Dies Down We’ll Be Looking More At Performing As Well. But At The Moment We’re In Talks About Putting On An Actual Gardening Show. Or Designing A Garden For Next Year. Maybe Even For Gardeners World Live.

TO.P: That Would Be Great. And What We Would Love To See, Just To Give You A Little Heads Up, It Would Make Our Day, Is You Working With Some African Plants, Caribbean Plants, Some Herbs, Maybe Speaking To Some Caribbean Gardeners.

DQG: That’s Really Interesting As Well Because It Doesn’t Have To Be Your Traditional Sweetcorns And Turnips And Stuff.  You Can Really Add Your Own Flair And I Think That’s What People Miss About Gardening And I Think We Need To Push Into It You Know.

TO.P: Wonderful!

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The Vintage Look

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We Also Spoke With The DQG’s Mum Who Was With Him On The Day, Sporting A Lovely Dress Which She Revealed Came From The Ladies Vintage Clothing Section, In Vintage Shop, Vintage Henley, On Henley- In-Arden High Street, Warwickshire. And Apparently Daisy Helped His Mum Choose It For The Occassion. The Two Are Very Close And Back In March He Posted A Tribute To Her On Mothers’ Day.

TO.P: So Do You Have Any Other Children?

DQG’s Mum: I Do. I Have An Older Son And A Daughter. But Tom’s My Baby of The Family. And He’s Got An Unusual Mum, Because I’m A Lorry Driver. And I’m The Only Lady Lorry Driver In The Company.

TO.P:  And What Company Is That?

DQG’s Mum: Full Speed Express. And We Deliver All Over The Country. And I’ve Got My HIAB Licence As Well (For Cranes That Go On The Back of The Lorry).

TO.P: Wow. And Your HGV Licence?

DQG’s Mum: I’m Going For My HGV Licence As Well. [We Researched Full Speed Express And Discovered That They Offer Not Just Road Delivery, But A Complete Set of Air, Sea, And Road Logistics. They Are Also Very Inclusive And Positive.

TO.P:  What Do You Think of Your Son’s New Found Success?

DQG’s Mum: Amazing. Absolutely Amazing. I’m So Overwhelmed And So Proud of Him. And It’s Something He Loves And He’s Got His Heart On It.  And He’s Started Up His Own Gardening Business As Well And He’s Amazing.

TO.P: Bearing In Mind Your Colleagues Will Be Big Hunky Lorry Drivers, What Do They Make of Your Son’s Success? They Are Absolutely Supportive And They Think It’s Great.

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Breaking All The Rules

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Finally We Spoke To His Partner Nico, Who Is Half Brazilian And Half Italian.

TO.P: So How Did You Two Meet?

Nico: We Met About Two Years Ago Online.

TO.P: So How Are You Coping With All His Fame And Attention?

Nico:  I Love It Because When I Met Tom He Was Just A Gardener, Then Daisy Came Along With Our Relationship, So It Was Just Like Us Living Our Relationship Together And Then Adding A Third Person. I Love It. This Is My Third or Fourth Flower Show With Daisy And I Just Love The Outfits. She’s Very Creative With A Thoughtful Narrative. So I Just Love It. Every Single Bit of It.

TO.P:  And What Do You Do?

Nico:  I Work In Sales. I Just Work In Waitrose. Everyone At Work They Saw Daisy On Telly. They Also Know Tom Because Sometimes He Comes To Work To Pick Me Up or We Go Shopping Together. They Are Always Asking For Pictures or Commenting On Social Media. Yeah Everyone Loves Him. He’s Just Like An International Sensation.

 TO.P: You’re The One Who’s Half Italian And Half Brazilian. Maybe You’re The International Sensation. [Laughs]

What Are You Looking Forward To Most For The Rest of The Day?

Nico: I’m Looking Forward To Seeing The Rest of The Gardens, The Marquee, The Flowers.

TO.P:  What Do You Like Most About The Flower Shows, Because You Said This Is About Your Fourth One Now?

Nico: I’m Not Going To Lie. I Love The Attention That Daisy Gets. Just Because Like It’s Nice To Break All The Rules!

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