Green-fingered Britons could soon be growing bananas and avocados instead of lupins and rhododendrons as a result of climate change, according to leading horticulturists.
 
Long-term forecasts on climate change suggest gardeners could face Mediterranean weather with hotter summers, droughts and warm, wet winters with the risk of flooding, the Sunday Times newspaper reported.

Lush lawns, often the pride of surburban gardens, will also come under threat, according to a new report to be published this week from the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) and the National Trust.

The report's author, Richard Bisgrove from Reading University, said the climate changes over the next 80 years could threaten some native plants, but would also give fresh opportunities to gardeners.