England’s climate is changing and our planting must change with it

Your report (Half of England officially in ‘exceptionally serious’ drought, 29 July) makes me think that perhaps it’s time to admit what horticulturists have whispered for years: the native‑plants‑only doctrine has had its day. We can keep insisting that every garden, park and verge must resemble a 1790s botanical inventory, or we can face the obvious – the climate those plants evolved for no longer exists.

We are trying to keep a pre‑industrial flora alive in a post‑industrial climate. Oak saplings are crisping, beech woods are browning, and “rewilded” meadows are going from hopeful to tinderbox in a single heatwave. Meanwhile, drought‑tolerant non‑natives – Mediterranean shrubs, prairie perennials, desert grasses – sit ready to do the job: hold soil, feed pollinators, stay green, stay alive.

This isn’t heresy, it’s adaptation. If the choice is plant non‑natives or watch landscapes die, then the path is obvious. Clinging to botanical nationalism while ecosystems collapse is not conservation; it’s sentimentality. England’s climate has changed. Our planting palette must change with it.
Richard Eltringham
Leicester

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