As the nation’s favourite gardener, Alan Titchmarsh has set more than his fair share of horticultural trends. The Love Your Weekend presenter, 75, rose to fame in the 1980s and soon went on to front some of the country’s biggest gardening show. This included Ground Force, Songs of Praise, and The Chelsea Flower Show.

In recent months, the former Gardener's World host has returned to the airwaves with his new ITV show Love Your Garden where he regularly shares his tips and tricks to achieve a well-maintained garden. But he doesn’t stop there, Alan also turns to Instagram to share the results of his hard work online.

However, Thursday’s post (March 27) took an unexpected turn when he shared a duo of picks of his purple snakeheads. The gorgeous flowers were in full bloom and boasted beautiful purple spotted petals that bowed over the plant pot.

He captioned the post: “Snakeheads are such a joy! How can such a symmetrical chequered flower be the product of nature? Magical!! [heart-eyes emoji]”.

But one famous face wasn’t a fan of the latest addition to his garden, as singer Myleene Klass admitted that the set her teeth on edge. She commented on the post: “Can’t lie Alan. These are triggering my trypophobia.”

Another agreed: “Weirdly I get the same reaction! [cry-laughing emoji]”. Trypophobia is the extreme or irrational aversion to or fear of clusters of small holes or bumps.

It didn’t take long before fans flooded to the comments to defend Alan and praise his green thumb. One user penned: “Alan they look like glamorous lanterns” as another gushed: “The hand of God, sir!”

A third gushed: “It really is one of the loveliest creations of nature – always looked forward to seeing this in bloom in my garden [heart-eyes emoji].”

It comes after Alan spoke about his concerns around social media. A fan of posting gardening visuals and botanical knowledge on Instagram, he admits to worrying about wider social media influences.

He confessed: “I do worry about social media and its impact. It can encourage introspection and become something of an obsession. I contribute to it but hopefully in a more wholesome way.”