University of East Anglia - Green warning, silver prize

Climate-change scientists have won a silver medal for their debut garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show with a design that modelled possible futures for UK gardeners. The University of East Anglia garden has three parts: a traditional 1950s garden; a 2050 garden in a "low-emissions future" within which plants currently thriving in the UK survive; and a 2050 "high-emissions future" garden featuring cacti and other hardy plants that can tolerate high temperatures and variable rainfall. "It has been a tremendously fun experience, but with a very serious message: climate change is real and we must all dig deep to mitigate its dangerous effects," said Johanna Forster, an environmental scientist at UEA and one of the garden's designers.