AP PHOTOS: Chelsea Flower Show blooms with royals, celebrities and pets

LONDON (AP) — The Chelsea Flower Show bloomed with royals, celebrities and a pup or two at the gardening showcase highlight resilient landscapes and natural planting.

King Charles III and Queen Camilla toured the show Monday before it opens to regular visitors. The king is a patron of the Royal Horticultural Society, which puts on the annual event in London.

The show is the place to see cutting-edge garden design, new plants and ideas to take home.

The displays highlighted natural planning, like moss paving and gravel paths bleeding into greenery. One garden was an example of the Atlantic temperate rainforest habitat that once covered western coasts of Britain.

Charles and Camilla visited a dog garden and examined the King's Rose, a new fuchsia-and-white-striped rose variety named after Charles in support of the King’s Foundation.

This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

Model and dancer Tasha Ghouri poses as she wears a head piece for The King's Trust garden designed by Joe Perkins at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

A show visitor wears a floral themed hat at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Dane Foxx from Acacia Creative Studio models a floral outfit at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

British actress Joanna Lumley is photographed at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Catherine's Rose by Harkness Roses named after Britain's Princess of Wales on display at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Britain's Queen Camilla holds roses called "The King's Rose" of David Austin Roses at the Chelsea Flower Show in London, Monday May 19, 2025. (Toby Melville/Pool via AP)

Britain's King Charles III, patron of the Royal Horticultural Society, visits the Chelsea Flower Show in London, Monday May 19, 2025. (Toby Melville/Pool via AP)

Drag artist Ula Lah performs as Mother Nature at the Babylon Beat indoor Garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

A show visitor looks at roses at the Peter Beales Roses stand at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

A show visitor looks towards a display of daffodils at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Chelsea Pensioners Jack McCabe, left, and Tony Manley, right, look at the hat worn by Claire Myers-Lamptey designed by Mathew Eluwande for Nature Recovery, for communities to embrace re-wilding at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Model and dancer Tasha Ghouri poses as she wears a head piece for The King's Trust garden designed by Joe Perkins at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

A bumble bee sits on a peony from Primrose Hall Peonies on display at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Cordelia Bellew walks through a garden displaying James Doran-Webb Driftwood Sculptures at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Dane Foxx from Acacia Creative Studio models a floral outfit at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

A bumble bee hovers above a peony from Primrose Hall Peonies on display at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Britain's King Charles III, patron of the Royal Horticultural Society, and Queen Camilla visit the Chelsea Flower Show in London, Monday May 19, 2025. (Toby Melville/Pool via AP)

Claire Myers-Lamptey wears a hat by Mathew Eluwande for Nature Recovery, for communities to embrace re-wilding as she looks through a display at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Chelsea Pensioner Peter Wilson reaches up to touch a Punks head with a mohawk created with pampas grass, tropical blooms and preserved leaves part of Chelsea in Bloom by Ricky Paul Flowers at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Chilli the dog wears has a chilli hat placed on his head in the BBC Radio 2 Dog Garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.

Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.

Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”

Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.

“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”

He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”

Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.

More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.

Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.

In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.

Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”

Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.

“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.

The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.

The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.

Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.

In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)