Chiswick House named in national report that warns historic gardens are unprepared for extreme weather

The report published today by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic England warns that the UK’s historic parks and gardens are increasingly vulnerable to climate change

Chiswick House & Gardens is named among the sites already feeling the effects, alongside the Royal Parks, Princes Street Gardens and Kew.

Historic parks and gardens employ more than 32,000 people and contribute £2.9 billion a year to the UK economy from international visitors alone, according to the report. It found rainfall is becoming more intense and unpredictable, storms more frequent and severe, dry periods longer and harsher, and that pests and diseases are thriving in milder, wetter conditions.

Rosie Fyles, who is Head of Gardens at Chiswick House & Gardens and writes a monthly column for The Chiswick Calendar, gave a statement for the report and spoke to BBC Radio London this morning about the impact of this summer’s heat on the gardens.

READ ALSO: How Chiswick House and Gardens is coping with the wild weather

‘The threat of climate change on Chiswick’s three-hundred-year-old landscape is for all to see during drought, the gardens are scorched,’ she said. ‘The reality is that our ability as gardeners to minimise the negative effects, particularly on our 1,800 trees, is quite limited.

My role now is to plan intelligently and make the right informed decisions to prepare for the next three hundred years, gathering as much advice and resources as I can to do so.’

Plants in the heat at Chiswick House. Photo by Freya Willetts.

On the radio, she said the garden team’s day-to-day decisions are increasingly shaped by the changing climate. ‘All gardeners are obsessed by weather,’ she said. ‘The conversation has sort of leapt from what’s happening in the next week, in the next few months, to what’s happening in 30 years and 100 years.. Every decision we’re making is now informed by how a plant, how a tree, is going to respond to the predicted climate.’ The main decision facing the team at the moment, she said, is what to water and what to leave, along with which trees are likely to thrive and which will decline more quickly.

Erika Diaz Petersen, Principal National Landscape Adviser at Historic England, said the research highlighted ‘the challenges owners are facing in managing sites in the face of risks such as flooding, drought, high winds and pest and diseases, and the need for advice and support.’