The traditional British garden could be ravaged by climate change, the National Trust said yesterday, as it produced paintings showing how hotter summers may fry herbaceous borders, while wet winters could rot spring bulbs.
It released a picture showing what 2C hotter could look like orange trees replace rose bushes, while palms push out foxgloves.
The trust, which today is launching an exhibition about what could be lost if temperatures rise significantly, said that lupins, delphiniums, hyacinths and tulips were most at risk.
The trust cites research from the Met Office suggesting that a 2C rise could make the climate in southern England similar to south west France, while a 4C rise could expose gardens to conditions more like southern Portugal.
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The paintings, in which the bucolic scenery of today is replaced by parched scrubland, were produced by the Gloucestershire artist Rob Collins for the Plant in Time exhibition, which will tour Trust properties around the country.
The historic plant collections in National Trust gardens are the horticultural equivalent of the collections in our national galleries and museums, the gardener Alan Titchmarsh said.
The exhibition has some positive messages about what we can all do to help secure the future of the plants that make our gardens so special.
Mike Calnan, the National Trusts head of gardens and parks, said that the exhibition was a wake-up call to how changes in our climate could threaten our great horticultural collections and ultimately the character of the British garden.
He said that while there was a great awareness of the potential impacts on polar bears, ice sheets and ice caps, this exhibition is a gentle reminder that this amazing heritage here in the trust is equally under threat.
Climate change is possibly going to shunt gardens into a different climatic zone, he warned.
The extent to which future generations can continue to enjoy [the trusts gardens] is partly dependent on how we all act today. Theres no better place to start making a difference to the environment than in our own gardens.
The trust is currently studying plants at 80 gardens to assess what is most at risk and how vulnerable species can be helped to survive.
A 2C rise is considered likely by the end of the century and bigger temperature increases are thought possible if global emissions are not cut.
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