All change

As our climate changes, gardeners are finding their plant palette is shifting, with some old favourites no longer happy and opportunities to try something new

- JODIE JONES

Sited on a south-facing slope, the Dry Garden at RHS Garden Hyde Hall in Essex is home to around 8,000 drought-tolerant plants originating from areas of low summer rainfall, including the Mediterranean, South Africa, South America, Australia and California. Although the garden is never watered, plants such as Verbascum olympicum thrive in its free-draining environment.

News that Ventnor Botanic Garden on the Isle of Wight has just planted the first citrus grove in the UK made the front pages recently, with the tabloids trumpeting an exciting future where we bask in year-round Mediterranean sunshine. For Ventnor head gardener Wayne Williams, it is certainly an exciting experiment, but also a concerning indicator that our climate is changing, and changing fast.

“This garden has always been an average of five degrees warmer than the rest of the British Isles,” he says. “We have had a few of the hardier citrus outside for the last 15 years, but recently conditions have become mild enough to give us the confidence to plant out a good range of lemons, oranges, grapefruits and Buddha’s hand citrus, as well as a rare caviar citrus (although that will probably have to come in over winter for the foreseeable future). I'm looking forward to the challenge, but I'm sad that we may not be able to grow apples in future.”

Ifapples are indeed unable to cope with our changing climate, that will be extremely bad news for Tom Brown. As head gardener at West Dean in West Sussex, he has responsibility for a renowned collection of over 100 different varieties of exquisitely trained fruit trees.