Roses are blooming earlier than ever this year at some of the National Trust’s southern gardens, as climate change drives flowering forward, the charity said.
The famous display in the rose garden at Mottisfont, Hampshire, is expected to peak between the mid and end of May, instead of its traditional June high point, driven by a mild, wet winter and unusually warm spells in spring, the trust said.
But when the rose garden at Mottisfont was officially donated to the National Trust on June 30 1972, it was in peak flower, the charity said – with head gardeners seeing regular changes to flowering patterns since.
The peak blooming of the roses has shifted by the equivalent of one day every two-and-a-half years, as a result of rising temperatures and changing weather patterns, the National Trust said.
It is a similar story at other National Trust gardens in the south of England, such as Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire, Buckland Abbey, Devon and Chartwell in Kent – but more northern properties are seeing more typical flowering, according to the charity.
Mottisfont head gardener Rob Ballard said: “After a very wet, warm winter, including 42 consecutive days of rain at the start of the year, the roses got off to an early start.
“Then warm spells in April accelerated growth, and this year they’re flowering earlier than we can remember.”
The changing climate also means the team is having to adapt the way the rose garden, and the wider site, is managed, from caring for the soil to pruning roses differently, he said.
Mr Ballard added: “We’ve mulched the whole garden to lock in water, suppress weeds and build organic matter in the soil.
“It supports everything from the roses themselves to the worm population beneath them.”
He said: “We’re adjusting our pruning to let roses such as Adelaide d’Orleans grow in a more natural way and thinking longer-term about the right plant in the right place, better water management, and conserving rare varieties so they survive for generations to come.”
At Chartwell, gardens and outdoor manager Christopher Lane said this spring was a clear indication of how the changing climate was affecting gardens.
He said: “The lack of cold snaps has given plants an early boost, accelerating growth across the garden.
“We saw our first rose in flower as early as March, something that would normally come much later.”
Sam Brown, senior gardener at Buckland Abbey, said roses were coming into flower two to three weeks earlier than traditionally expected, and added that shorter dormancy periods, more pests surviving the winter and increasing summer drought were all creating challenges.
He said: “We’re responding by improving soil health, selecting resilient varieties and using techniques like mulching and underplanting to retain moisture.”
National Trust horticultural specialist Rebecca Bevan said earlier flowering was not necessarily harmful, but climate change still posed threats to roses.
She said: “The bigger concern is water availability.
“Research shows that drought poses the greatest threat to roses, so we’re focusing on building healthy soils, choosing tougher varieties and investing in water capture and storage.”
With roses blooming early, visitors to National Trust properties in the south of England are being urged to plan trips to catch the best displays earlier this year than they once would.
