From my Substack diary no.181, Friday, 12th. June 2026

Despite grey clouds and a blustery moderate breeze that seems to never die down, it is quite pleasant out there. The wind has really been relentless for well over a week and as a result some of the plants in my garden are suffering. Gardeners have known for over two decades that climate change requires us to continually rethink which plants are suitable for our gardens, and which are not. Whilst individual plants die the species is often able to survive simply by migrating to a climate zone that is suitable for them.

When I first learned about migrating trees back in the late 90’s I had visions of the Ents of Middle Earth. It raised a chuckle or two in talks on climate change. Individual trees do not, of course, raise their roots and march off to a more pleasant spot. But many trees are able to spread their seeds far and wide, the vast majority of which do not germinate. Those that do will germinate in a slightly more hospitable geography. So, we know that tree species are on the move. For example, as the south of Britain becomes warmer and wetter those seeds that spread north are more likely to survive, the same the following year and the year after that and so on. Trees of a particular species die out in the south but start to appear in greater numbers further north.

When I spoke to groups of people in the 2000’s (naughties?) most of them got this; it made sense to them. I think also that it was a sign of hope; anthropogenic climate change was highly unlikely to lead to the destruction of all tree species. They would simply migrate to geographies where they, or at least their saplings could survive. I sometimes pointed out that humans have adopted this migratory survival method, which has served them well for some 2-4 million years. But, trees have one major advantage over us: they do not have borders to cross.