UK horticultural groups launch climate tool for gardens — SkimNews
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- Future National Gardens Group is developing the Garden Climate Assessment Tool (GCAT), a free online risk-assessment platform to predict plant survival under future UK climate conditions
- Cambridge University Botanic Garden curator Prof Sam Brockington said traditional gardening knowledge is no longer reliable due to unprecedented climate change
- Royal Horticultural Society, National Trust, English Heritage and Royal Botanic Gardens are among the organizations in the FNGG coalition supporting the tool's development
- Garden Climate Assessment Tool uses data from 289 UK gardens and up to 80,650 plant types to assess tolerance to temperature, dryness, and winter cold at user-specified locations
- Laura Carey of Carey Garden Design Studio warned that classic garden plants like silver birch are already suffering in recent hot summers and may not be viable long-term
- Clive Boase of Climate Change Gardening said the tool could help gardeners in England’s driest regions move away from water-intensive lawns and plants like hydrangeas
- Kim Shrosbree of Epsom Garden Society noted the tool currently lacks soil type data, which limits accuracy for areas with chalk or clay ground
Why it matters: UK gardeners face increasing losses as climate change undermines traditional planting choices, and without tools like GCAT, they risk investing time and resources in plants doomed to fail. The exclusion of soil data limits its immediate usefulness, especially in regions with extreme soil conditions, delaying widespread confidence in adoption.
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