Royal wedding: Meghan Markle and Prince Harry donate flowers from ceremony to hospice patients

St Joseph’s Hospice in Hackney thanked the couple for the very special delivery

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been praised for donating their wedding flowers to a hospice in London.

The blooms which adorned St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle on Saturday have been sent to various hospices and women’s refuges including St Joseph’s Hospice in Hackney.

Announcing the “very special delivery” on Facebook, the healthcare facility thanked the happy couple for their generous donation alongside a photo of a patient posing with her bouquet.

“Today we got a very special delivery. Beautiful bouquets made from the #royalwedding flowers which we gave to our patients,” they wrote.

“A big thank you to Harry and Meghan and florist Philippa Craddock. Our hospice smells and looks gorgeous. Such a lovely gesture”.

The public were quick to praise Harry and Meghan for the move, with one person commenting: “Beautiful flowers, such a wonderful gesture.”

Another added: “That’s the sweetest idea for wedding flowers I’ve ever heard.”

Someone else wrote: “What a wonderful idea. I believe this young couple will be making some changes in our world.”

The flowers already held sentimental value before the kind donation with the blooms, designed by florist Philippa Craddock, made using locally sourced foliage, much of which was taken from the gardens and parkland of The Crown Estate and Windsor Great Park.

(Getty Images (Getty Images)

These included peonies, Meghan's favourite, white garden roses, a favourite of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, as well as foxgloves, branches of beech, birch and hornbeam.

Meghan’s wedding bouquet also included forget-me-nots, another one of Diana’s favourites, however this was not included in the donation.

Instead, Meghan sent her bouquet to be placed on the Grave of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey the day after the wedding.

According to a statement from Westminster Abbey, this is a tradition started by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, after her marriage to King George VI to honour her brother Fergus, who was killed in 1915 at the Battle of Loos during WWI.

The Duchess of Cambridge also sent her bouquet to the grave after she married Prince William in 2011.