The gardening minister has revealed that talking to her plants helps to ease her grief after losing her beloved husband.

Rebecca Pow, a junior minister in the Environment Department, praised Prince Charles for his habit of talking to trees and plants, saying she would like to take her hat off to him. Her husband Charles Clark, a partner in an agricultural auctioneers firm, died aged 59 from cancer in 2019.

Miss Pow, 61, the minister for nature recovery and the domestic environment, told the Chopper’s Politics podcast: ‘My husband, very sadly, died… And I do find myself at home a bit by myself. And I do actually talk to my plants because when I get home, no one’s watered them.

Rebecca Pow, the junior Environment Minister lost her husband Charles to cancer three years ago (pictured) Rebecca Pow meets litter pickers for the Great British Spring Clean

Prince Charles also admitted to talking to his plants in 1986

‘So the first thing I usually do when I get in is water my plants, check how they are.’ Prince Charles famously said in 1986: ‘I just come and talk to the plants, really – very important to talk to them. They respond.’

Miss Pow added: ‘I honestly think there is a massively therapeutic angle to plants in just communing with nature as a whole.’