Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr joins the Royals for Chelsea Flower Show preview

May 19 2009 Liverpool Daily Post

THE Chelsea Flower Show opened its doors for the Queen and senior Royals along with stars from film, television and music, before the event opens to the public today.

Among those braving the occasional shower to look around were Rod Stewart and wife Penny Lancaster, Ringo Starr, Sienna Miller, Bill Nighy, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Titchmarsh and Philip Schofield.

Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren, visiting one of the exhibits, described the event as the “quintessential British show” with the best of the best in landscape gardening.

The judging of exhibits took place yesterday with the winners of the coveted Royal Horticultural Society medals announced this morning.

Whether some of the more unusual designs – such as Top Gear presenter James May’s Plasticine garden, which does not contain a single plant – will win official approval remains to be seen. May’s plot, one of 42 gardens and hundreds of exhibits at this year’s show, has Plasticine flowers and plants, fish, a picnic and an orange hanging from a tree.