End of the English garden

Exotic fruits could replace daffodils, bluebells and snowdrops in the English garden as the Mediterranean climate travels north, bringing warmer summers and wetter winters.

A report for government-funded UK Climate Impacts predicts global warming could make Wordsworth's celebrated golden bloom a rare sight in the UK.

Commissioned by the Royal Horticultural Society, the National Trust, English Heritage and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew - among other organisations - the report says cool weather-loving blooms such as the crocus, tulip and iris, together with willow and birch trees, ferns and mosses, could all disappear.

Lawns, so well suited to Britain's mild, moist climate, will suffer. Gardeners will turn instead to coarser, drought-resistant grasses, while species normally associated with the Mediterranean such as grapes, pomegranates, apricots, figs, olives and citrus fruits will thrive. Richard Bisgrove and Professor Paul Hadley, from Reading University, co-authors of Gardening In The Global Greenhouse, said summer drought and waterlogged winters will be among the new challenges faced by gardeners as higher temperatures and increased rainfall take hold.

Fiona Reynolds, director general of the National Trust, said: "We are already seeing the effects of extreme and unexpected weather on our wildlife, historic buildings, rivers and lakes, coast and gardens. Our work on gardens gives us all a signpost to these changes. This is an invaluable call for action."

Nigel Taylor, curator of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, said: "We have noticed warmer summers, drier autumns and wetter winters in the last 10 to 20 years, with greater frequency of storms and summer droughts. We have also seen waterlogging from the Thames as sea levels rise." He said pests and disease which thrive in warm weather would be more prevalent.

Horticulturalists at the National Trust garden at Osterley Park, Middlesex, have had to improve drainage to reduce waterlogging in the roots of their historic cedars.

But Dr Andrew Colquhoun, director general of the Royal Horticultural Society, said climate change over the next 80 years would be "exciting". He added: "While there will be greater opportunities to grow exotic fruits and sub-tropical plants, increased winter rainfall will present difficulties for Mediterranean species which dislike waterlogging. Careful irrigation techniques and wise water management will be essential."