Gardens for the year 2050 at the Chelsea Flower Show

16 May 2008

Scientists from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit are inviting us to look into the future at next week's Chelsea Flower Show.

They have created a garden which compares a traditional English garden with how it might look in the year 2050. It illustrates the dramatic impact that changes in climate have on the choices of plants suitable for our gardens, and some of the gardening methods we might need to adopt to cope with climate change.

The garden is the concept of two young researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA), Johanna Forster and Saffron O'Neill, working with garden designer Ian Stanton.

Saffron said, "People cherish their gardens as much as their homes and we are showing what climate change might mean for gardeners by 2050, and why. For instance, the 2050 gardener will be working with higher temperatures and more intense rainfall. The milder weather will mean fewer frosts and more garden pests."

They have designed three distinct garden areas which are exhibited in the Continuous Learning area within the Great Pavillion at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea, where the Show is being held from 20-24 May.

The first is a typical 1950s cottage garden with flowers such as delphiniums, rhododendrons, foxgloves, lupins and azaleas, which would have been seen at the Chelsea Flower Show around 1950. The simplicity of this fragrant garden is certain to conjure up memories of childhood idyll for some of the people who visit it, and provides a stark contrast to the future visions in the two adjoining sections.

The 2050 low emissions garden assumes that we act to reduce global emissions of the greenhouse gases that contribute to man-made climate change, for example through use of solar panels and wind turbines. The 2050 climate under this scenario will still differ from that of the 1950s. Gardeners will need to adapt to these conditions by selecting plants that prefer a longer growing season, higher average temperatures and less soil moisture. Such plants may currently be grown in sheltered positions within the UK but will increasingly be able to thrive without protection.

The 2050 high emissions garden is based on a scenario in which there is no attempt to curb global greenhouse gas emissions. The resulting climate change will produce more extremes of weather with increasing likelihood of storm damage and longer, more frequent droughts. Gardeners will need to consider growing plants that are less familiar to the UK such as bougainvillea, hardier cacti and succulents like aloe, and the Italian cypress which can tolerate high temperatures and variable rainfall. Methods of garden management are also demonstrated, including a pathway constructed of recycled porous materials to cope with increased rainfall and reduce flooding risk.

The Tyndall Centre's garden exhibition is sponsored by the Natural Environment Research Council and the Economic & Social Research Council, both of which are partners in the major new interdisciplinary research programme Living With Environmental Change (LWEC).

LWEC is the response of the UK's major funders of environment-related research to the challenge of global climate change. This programme will provide the knowledge we need to help to mitigate the extent of climate change and to adapt to the changes that are already occurring. The 2050 garden exhibit is just one small example. It not only shows the ways that gardens will need to be adapted to deal with climate change, but also how choices we make now on global emissions will determine the degree of adaptation necessary in future.

Visitors will have the opportunity to discuss climate issues with the UEA and Tyndall Centre researchers, who will be staffing the garden all week. At the entrance to the garden there is a box-hedge 'message board' where people are also encouraged to attach a note of their observations and comments about the effects of climate change.

Further information

To arrange pictures or interviews, please contact:

Simon Dunford
UEA Press Office
Tel: 01603 592 203

Saffron O'Neill (at Chelsea every day)
University of East Anglia
Mob: 07736 030 459

Johanna Forster (at Chelsea every day)
University of East Anglia
Mob: 07917 626 992

Asher Minns (at Chelsea every day)
Tyndall Communication Manager
Mob: 07880 547 843

NERC Press Office
Natural Environment Research Council
Polaris House, North Star Avenue
Swindon, SN2 1EU
Tel: 01793 411561
Mob: 07917 557215

Notes

1. More information is available about the RHS Chelsea Flower Show's Continuous Learning exhibition.

2. Details of the Living with Environmental Change programme can be found on the NERC website.

3. The Tyndall Centre is the UK's national centre for researching what to do about climate change. It is a partnership of scientists, engineers and social scientists from six major UK Universities. It is funded by the three UK Research Councils responsible for Engineering, Economic & Social Sciences, and the Natural Environment.

4. The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funds world-class science, in universities and its own research centres, that increases knowledge and understanding of the natural world. It is tackling major environmental issues such as climate change, biodiversity and natural hazards. NERC receives around £400m a year from the government's science budget, which is used to provide independent research and training in the environmental sciences.

5. The Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) funds research and training in social and economic issues. It is an independent organisation, established by Royal Charter, but receives most of its funding through the Department of Innovation, Universities & Skills. The budget of £181m (2007-2008) funds over 2,500 researchers in academic institutions and policy research institutes throughout the UK. ESRC also supports more than 2,000 postgraduate students.

Press release: 25/08

Gardens for the year 2050 at the Chelsea Flower Show

External links

Press links

Recent press news