SHE is This Morning’s glam new face of gardening, shunning muddy boots and dungarees in favour of blow-dried blonde locks and floral frocks.
And Daisy Payne has revealed she could follow in the footsteps of Charlie Dimmock — “just with very small boobs.”
Fans of BBC makeover show Ground Force, which ended in 2005, will recall how co-presenter Charlie ditched her bra.
And when The Sun asked Daisy during an exclusive chat if she always wears one, the 25-year-old beauty confided: “You know what? I don’t really.
“That was the thing in lockdown — we didn’t have to wear a bra and it was lovely.
“But now I have to go back into society and I am like: ‘Oh God, I am going to have to wear a bra now.’
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“I love a crop top, though — that is my vibe. Nothing underwired, thank you — not interested.”
And Daisy considers herself to be “Charlie 2.0” by challenging the male-dominated world of TV gardeners.
She added: “Charlie is amazing and she is still doing so much brilliant stuff as well.
“I think gardening is getting more diverse. Charlie Dimmock 2.0 — I will take that.”
Daisy set up her Instagram in January 2019 after growing a few salad leaves led to her transforming a “square of brown soil” at her new build home in Cirencester, Gloucs, into a blooming patch of colour.
She said: “I got a vegetable patch and built that into the garden and started to grow my own.
Her grandfather, who inspired her to spend more time outdoors, died of Covid in 2020 — and she took on an allotment a short time later.
She told OK! magazine it helped her to manage the grief during “a really difficult period”.
In March 2021, while sitting in her pyjamas watching Netflix, Daisy got an email from This Morning bosses who had spotted her talent online.
She said: “My Instagram really kicked off in lockdown when we were all struggling with things to do and keep busy.
“And with a little bit of good luck, the producers at This Morning saw what I was doing on Instagram and YouTube — and here we are.”
A month later, Daisy made her live debut in front of one million viewers on the ITV daytime show.
She said: “I love This Morning. It’s that feeling of going live and thinking: ‘What is going to happen now?’”
The rising TV star quit her job in communications to brush shoulders with her new colleagues Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield.
Daisy added: “One minute you are pottering around in your garden and the next you are doing live telly on This Morning. It’s mad, isn’t it?”
And having learned her rhododendrons from her roses from a stack of horticultural books, the self-taught gardener is determined to make her new passion more accessible to others who want to give it a go.
She said: “I am not from gardening stock. I actually found it really hard to get into it at first because there was so much jargon and it felt quite inaccessible.
“But that felt like the opportunity to go: ‘Do you know what? People like me can get into gardening and this is how easy it is.
“It is interesting to learn about why plants are called certain things but you don’t necessarily need to use Latin words. Just get into it for the joy of gardening.
“I am just a normal girl and I think that is really important because we need to see real life. We don’t need things to be more complicated.”
Keen to smash the stereotypes that come with her job, Daisy does not plan on ditching her manicures and designer handbags anytime soon.
She said: “I think there is a perception that if you have long blonde hair and nice nails you can’t be a gardener — you are just a pretty girl.
“I just think that is not how it is. You can be intelligent and have more strings to your bow.
“Challenging that stereotype is really important to me.”
But despite appearing regularly on TV, Daisy says she still has to “pinch herself” when she meets telly legends such as her gardening hero Alan Titchmarsh, who she met last month at the Royal Windsor Flower Show.
She recalled: “It was really cool because I was like: ‘Oh my God — it’s Alan. What a legend!’”
“It genuinely is lovely when you meet your heroes and they are lush. He was really lovely and warm and exactly how he is on telly.”
And Daisy began to realise she is slowly becoming a household name in her own right when she was approached by a fan for the first time while stepping on a Tube train in London last month.
She revealed: “This lady came over and I could see it in her face. I thought: ‘Do I know her from work or from somewhere?’
“She was looking at me and as we got on the train she went: ‘Are you Daisy from This Morning?’
“I just thought ‘Oh God’. It was a bit of a moment for me. I got home and I was like, ‘It is happening!’ That was funny.”
Daisy thinks it would be a “dream” to follow in the footsteps of Alison Hammond and Josie Gibson who have risen through ranks on This Morning to sit on the sofa alongside Philip.
She said: “Well, I think it is everyone’s dream job, isn’t it?
“Who knows where this is all going to take me? I will take whatever opportunity comes my way if it feels right and just be myself.
“If I can keep doing what I am doing I will be really happy. Maybe the future is doing more presenting stuff — and that would be amazing, because I love it.
“Having people like Alison and Josie around you is really encouraging because it makes you feel like you can be yourself and you don’t have to put on any pretence.
“I love that because it just makes you feel so much more confident.”
In the meantime, Daisy has yet to find her Mr Right among the flowerbeds at her allotment.
Asked if gardening is the way to find love, Daisy replied: “I don’t think so. I haven’t found that yet.
“I have no time, though. Maybe my Mr Right is hanging out in the garden centre.
“You never know — I might bump my trolley into him.”
Daisy revealed that she is inundated with messages for gardening tips.
She said: “It feels like such a lovely chapter of my life right now.
“Being part of the This Morning family is just brilliant — and it really is a family.
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“And also to be able to make gardening really accessible and a bit glamorous, shall we say. A bit trendy and cool and to bring it to the next generation.”
“I am just a girl who loves dresses and digging — you can do it all.”
