Queen Noor of Jordan's gardener 'asked to grow exotic plants in bid to force her out', tribunal hears When this did not materialise, she said, she complained and Mr Welland was given a new title of head groundsman which allowed him to take over her role. She said: "It started with the fact that I asked for Danny Welland to have a pay rise. I was told at the meeting with Sharon Kelly [Queen Noor's personal assistant] that if Danny Welland got a pay rise I would as well, the difference between us was so small that she could not give him a pay rise and not myself as well. Mrs Hill added Ms Kelly told her that Mr Welland was given some of her duties including pond clearing and leaf blowing because he was man. "He was a man, he was stronger than me - it was relayed to me time and time again," she said. She told the hearing she emailed Queen Noor about her grievance before meeting with the Royal, who said that acting estate manager Caroline Migdadi would investigate. Then, Mrs Hill claimed, she told her the roses had been badly pruned and there were weeds. "I was quite shocked by this reaction as we only had praise for how wonderful the gardens looked," she said in her tribunal statement. Mrs Hill, from Ascot, said that Queen Noor and acting estate manager Caroline Migdadi's attitude towards her then changed dramatically. She was excluded from meetings, stripped of her office and computer and "told off" in front of student gardeners, she claimed. The tribunal heard Mrs Migdadi ordered her to start growing exotic plants including mangos and avocados in the kitchen garden. When she warned it was impossible to do so in the UK, she was told in a "threatening manner" that she should "tell that to Her Majesty Queen Noor," it was said. She decided to leave her post in January last year and took up a new job that March. Mrs Hill is now suing the company which runs the estate, Panama-based Ambassador Marine Corporation (AMC), for sex discrimination and constructive dismissal. Representing AMC, Schona Jolly, put to Mrs Hill that she had never expressly said to Ms Kelly, Mrs Migdadi or Queen Noor that she was being discriminated against because of her sex, and that she knew Mr Welland needed the money. It is understood King Hussein bought Buckhurst Park, a 16-bedroomed country house, from Lord Palumbo, a Conservative peer, in 1986. Since the king's death in 1999, Queen Noor has divided her time between London, Washington and Jordan. The tribunal continues.