It was umbrellas to the fore today as gaggles of celebrities braved the damp weather for a private preview of the 84th Chelsea Flower Show.

Around 157,000 visitors are expected to attend the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea event, which opens to the public tomorrow.

The Queen, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall are due to visit later today.

Emma Thompson, the actress, was present at the launch of a campaign to "plant pink", to raise money for Breast Cancer Care.

Unveiling a pink rose, which is the signature plant for the campaign, she said: "It seems to me there are more and more women getting this disease. Of course, since they are the growers and nurturers, the effects of a woman having this disease go very, very far through the family. The reverberations through children’s and parents’ lives are very great.

"I am promoting this for all the people who I know who have lost their women."

Darcey Bussell, the ballerina, said that she was honoured to learn that a new variety of old-fashioned English rose, a crimson-coloured double bloom, had been named after her.

She said: "To have anything named after you is major but I suppose to have a David Austin rose is phenomenal. I do feel a bit like a child in a sweetshop, I love gardens."

Sir Paul Smith, the clothes designer, also had a rose named after him today. His wife had arranged for his name to be given to a vibrant pink flower in honour of his 60th birthday.

Sir Paul said: "It was a wonderful surprise from my wife and I like the fact it has a happy colour because hopefully my clothes have an optimism about them."

The show includes more than 100 floral exhibitions within the Great Pavilion, as well as 19 show gardens and 27 smaller gardens built outside.

Ironically, in view of the windy and rainswept conditions which have dashed delicate flowers and caused acute last-minute difficulties for those building the exhibits, the South East’s water shortage is a running theme at the event.

One African-style garden has already seen much of its red soil washed away.

Several displays highlight ways to tackle the hosepipe ban. One show garden featured a domestic drainage system which collects rainwater beneath garden paving, while other displays showed drought-resistant plants and even a solar-powered irrigation system.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Revealed: how Eurocrat leaked secrets over dinners
• Politicians use the net to brainstorm
• British spy in longbow plot to kill Himmler