Dame Mary Berry and the stars of Bridgerton are among the celebrities who visited the Chelsea Flower Show on Monday, before it opens to the public.
Among the highlights of this year’s show are gardens filled with drought-resilient plants, water storage and green innovation as the show embraces sustainability and a future with climate change.
Dame Judi Dench placed a seedling from the Sycamore Gap tree, felled in an act of vandalism, onto the National Trust’s Octavia Hill garden.
The seedling, grown from a seed taken from the tree which had stood for 200 years in a dip on Hadrian’s Wall and named by Dame Judi as Antoninus after the adopted son of Emperor Hadrian, will be on display during the show.
Andrew Jasper, director of gardens and parklands at the National Trust, said he hoped visitors would take inspiration from seeing the seedling, saying: “When we first saw the seedlings germinate, we knew there was hope for the tree’s future.”
Ms Berry, 89, a former judge on The Great British Bake Off, was photographed in the Bridgerton garden with actresses Hannah Dodd and Ruth Gemmell who play Francesca Bridgerton and her mother, Lady Violet, in the hit Netflix series.
The garden is inspired by Penelope Featherington, played by Derry Girls star Nicola Coughlan, whose love story is one of the main themes of the recently-released third season.
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Ms Berry also visited the National Garden Scheme garden, joined by the Chelsea Pensioners, who are retired British Army soldiers based at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, where the annual flower show takes place.
The TV chef is the president of the scheme, which gives people access to over 3,500 private gardens in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Ms Dench, 89, a well-known nature-lover, met naturalist and TV presenter Chris Packham.
She was photographed with a seedling in a pot from the Sycamore Gap tree, which was a much-photographed tree, chopped down in September last year.
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Dame Joan Collins, Carol Vorderman, Dame Joanna Lumley, Gabby Logan and Bruno Tonioli were among the other celebrities who visited the show, which opens to the public on Tuesday.
Sustainability is one of the themes of this year’s show, with organisers, the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), introducing a “green audit” for larger gardens and handing out an environmental innovation award for the first time.
The King and Queen are scheduled to tour the event on Monday.
