Experts have predicted that everywhere across the UK will get hotter and drier as climate change continues to affect our seasons.
But one city is going to continue seeing downpours thanks to its rain trap reputation.
The Royal Horticultural Society has modelled how global warming will affect its property until 2075 and said summers will be hotter and drier in all its gardens – with Manchester being an exception.
The northern city has gained a reputation as Britain’s ‘rainy city’. There is even a website that tracks rainfall, called Rainchester.
Manchester has 150 rainy days a year on average, which makes it the most rainy city in England. However UK-wise it isn’t the most damp city, as Glasgow has 170 rainy days a year.
Experts say this is due to the westerly winds drawing low pressure systems off the Atlantic, meaning Manchester frequently bears the brunt of rain falling over the north west.
The RHS Bridgewater garden in Salford is being earmarked for trees and other plant species that survive in wetter climates.
Trees such as oaks, birches and beeches have grown in Britain for centuries, but are starting to suffer in the south of England as a result of the changing climate, so are being considered for RHS Bridgewater’s new botanical garden, which aims to preserve a wide range of species.
Domestic gardeners across the country are already adapting to more extreme weather. Sales of water butts and greenhouse shades increased in 2024, despite a wet and rainy summer.
Hartley Botanic, a greenhouse maker, said sales of greenhouse blinds had risen by 30% since last year and sales of water butts have also gone up.
This summer was the coolest since 2015, according to the Met Office. But it would have been considered warmer than average during 1961 to 1990. Meanwhile rainfall was actually 5% below average.
The RHS has five gardens in England which it uses to sustain species in a range of climates.
Jon Webster, curator of RHS Rosemoor in Devon, told The Guardian they had mapped expected changes in temperature and rainfall until 2075.
He said that the RHS Bridgewater had the most stable climate.
‘We saw hotter summers, drier summers, in most of our cases, whereas RHS Bridgewater was the only garden that remained fairly stable in its climate.
‘It is the wettest garden in the RHS – it took the mantle from us,’ said Webster.
The four others have already become drier and plant collections including 130 varieties of rhubarb, as well as rhododendrons and gooseberries, have already had to be moved north to Bridgewater from RHS Wisley in Surrey.
New botanical gardens are being planned for Bridgewater and RHS Hyde Hall in Essex.
‘Oaks you wouldn’t have considered as a tree in an arboretum in the UK, but because of this drier, hotter climate they’re becoming a real contender,’ Webster said.
Beeches and birches were suffering, he added, while exotics such as Magnolia grandiflora, native to the southern US, were doing well at Wisley.
