Climatic Effect On Plants
Weather watching
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Horticulturalist Will Giles gives his opinion on how the climate is affecting our plants
I think that The Eden Project is one of the most marvellous greenhouses I’ve ever seen in the world. I’ve actually seen some in the States and this far outstrips those. If I’m right, it is the biggest greenhouse in the world and it has such a diverse range of plants that you can’t see anywhere else under glass.
You’ll see plants growing to Rain Forest size within a few years and also because they mist they can get cloud forest conditions which is absolutely fantastic.
When I visited The Eden Project, I was in seventh heaven. I just love that sort of situation - sticky, jungly feel... fantastic! The thing that most impressed me was the sheer scale; the fact that it’s all done on a rock side in Cornwall - it’s all absolutely sublime.
I think it’s very important to study the environment because up until recently or recent years no-one has been studying the environment, how what man does affects us and through studying different conditions, we can learn an awful lot.
They do a lot of scientific projects there which show how crops grow, how they react to different conditions so they’ll be doing lots of experiments, say on coffee: how it will survive in a different climate to maybe one that it used to survive in. So a lot of it is to do with studying the effect the climate has on plants and how they will adapt.
I’m growing many of the plants in my exotic garden in Norfolk that grow in the biomes at The Eden Project. In fact, I’m quite amazed really. I was talking to one of the curators there who was amazed that I can grow so much stuff outside.
Content last updated: 16/03/2005
