Celebrities were getting a sneak preview of this year's Chelsea Flower Show yesterday as exhibitors unveiled displays with features ranging from giant lock gates to a section of wrought iron bridge and a swimming pool with submerged bar seats.
The serious business of judging the gardens was also under way yesterday before the world famous horticultural event opened to the public today.
The Queen and other royals were also touring the flower show, visiting exhibitions including a garden inspired by Professor Stephen Hawking.
The hundreds of exhibitors and designers spent the weekend putting the finishing touches to the 15 show gardens, 21 small gardens and hundreds of exhibits at the west London site.
A community theme replaced last year's recession-busting measures for the garden. Chelsea's largest-ever show garden, the Eden Project's Places of Change, was created through homelessness projects and prisons, and the Hesco Leeds City Council garden, based on a section of the Leeds-Liverpool canal complete with lock, is intended to encourage an appreciation of public green space.
And to mark the Year of International Biodiversity, Chelsea's organisers, the Royal Horticultural Society, are raising awareness of the power of plants and the natural world.
Charity Thrive, which uses gardening to help people with disabilities, the elderly and those who are recovering from accidents or illnesses, has designed a modern garden suitable for an older person while at what is perhaps the other end of the spectrum at Chelsea, designer David Domoney has followed up last year's live piranhas and the "Ace of Spades" biker garden with an "Ace of Diamonds" exhibit for the lover of "bling".
The garden celebrates the link between plants and precious stones, and includes many flowers named after stones, as well as jewellery - inspired by plants - which totals £20 million in value and is watched over by three suited security guards.
The path is laid out with gold shingle to look like a chain with a patio in the shape of a giant ruby pendant.
Other gardens vying for medals at Chelsea this year include displays from Australia, Malaysia and Norway, a "waterless water garden" inspired by Japanese Zen gardens and one which takes its inspiration from the fashion industry.
Smaller gardens include planting in the shape of an enormous bowl of Yorkshire rhubarb and custard - made of sedum - complete with a large wooden "spoon" seat, and a plot to mark the centenary of Captain Scott's expedition to the Antarctic.
Meanwhile exhibitors in the floristry competition have crafted parasols made of flowers - which looked stunning but did little to keep the blazing sun off those parading them around at the west London site.