Sir Michael Caine, Rod Stewart and Ringo Starr, the former Beatle, were among the celebrities to attend the preview opening of the Chelsea Flower Show today.

As the drummer exchanged quips with his band’s former producer George Martin, members of the Royal Family wandered through the show looking at the hundreds of exhibits from across the globe.

Mr Starr, who was opening one of the main exhibitions, told the assembled guests he was a keen gardener and joked that he would be taking away a garden bench to "add to the 100 I have already".

Sir Bob Geldof and the Earl and Countess of Wessex are among those expected to attend tonight's £280-a-head charity dinner, which will be the official curtain-raiser for the 83-year-old show.

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More than 150,000 visitors are expected during the week. Gardeners visiting the preview show today said that recycling was one of the major themes already emerging.

Jane Owen, Times Online’s gardening correspondent, said: "The green theme is very strong this year. The Royal Horticultural Society has been encouraging that for several years. It’s in keeping with its philosophy about being responsible gardeners.

"It’s about organic, it’s about sustainability and it's about wildlife, although I am critical of the fact that some are claiming the high ecological ground for gardens which involve flying plants and people in from all over the world."

As is traditional, several new flowers have made their debut, including most poignantly an apricot rose in memory of former TV presenter Caron Keating, who died of cancer last year. Her mother Gloria Hunniford unveiled the rose in the Cancer Research Garden.

Tears were also being shed in another corner of the show, as the three daughters of screen legend Sir John Mills unveiled a pretty pink Hybrid Tea shaped bloom created in memory of the actor, who died aged 97 last month.

Other plant launches include a "full, rounded and pink" rose known as Alan Titchmarsh, and the Coreopsis Creme Brulee which had to be kept under 24-hour-a-day light and heat to prepare them for the show.

Earlier in the day the Imperial War Museum released 60 white doves from its commemorative Peace Garden to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Designed by Sir Terence Conran, the garden is all white with just a scattering of red poppies.

Continuing the green theme, Elma Fenton and Neil Malachy Black have achieved a first for the show with their natural swimming pond, which has plants that organically filter the water, allowing swimmers to get closer to nature without the need of harmful chemicals.

Many of the exhibitors however have plumped for a recycling of ideas as well as the use of old materials. Christopher Bradley-Hole has created a contemporary interpretation of an ancient sacred grove, while Tom Stuart-Smith has reworked his planting scheme for a 19th century Italian garden in his Laurent-Perrier garden complete with giant Borgese urns.

One early favourite for the Gold Medal, which will be awarded with the rest of the prizes tomorrow, is Andy Sturgeon’s Merrill Lynch garden. Owen said that with the use of square holes and oak cube stepping stones he had created a Giant’s Causeway effect.

Last year’s winners of the BBC/RHS people’s choice award, Jane Hudson and Erik de Maeijer, are the design inspirations behind the Cancer Research Garden which follows another of this year’s major themes; riotous colours.

Ms Owen said: "There’s lots of different colours. Lots of purples, greens and whites. There’s some very euphoric planting."

Another trend this year was said to be the "Jamie Oliver" influence, with several displays featuring a vast array of fruit and vegetable.

Other royals expected to attend the show and gala dinner tonight include the Duke of York, the Princess Royal, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and the Duke of Kent.

Organisers estimate that 6,500 bottles of champagne, 18,000 glasses of Pimms, 5,000 lobsters, 110,000 cups of tea and coffee and more than 28,000 rounds of sandwiches will be sold during the 83-year-old show which for the first time in its history will close on Saturday rather than Friday.

It had been feared that live coverage of this year’s show could be affected by the BBC industrial action, but the unions withdrew their picket lines outside the event at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea, west London after realising it was not a normal workplace.

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