Gardeners are more prepared than most to take on the rigours of climate change, according to nature experts.

Although global warming may mean that seasonal changes in temperature may be more difficult to predict than in the past, gardeners are accustomed to adapting to varying weather conditions.

Todd Forest, vice-president for horticulture and living collections at the New York Botanical Garden, said: "As any gardener knows, the weather was engineered to make us miserable," reports Nature News.

It seems that a warmer and less predictable climate are reshaping the way in which gardeners plant and sow, but they are capable of responding to these changes, experts argue.

"This concept that gardening puts you in harmony with nature is a big lie," says Peter Del Tredici, a botanist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

"Gardening is really about preventing nature from doing what it wants to do, which is to destroy your landscape, and gardeners know this at their core. Climate change is just another challenge."

For planting advice, visit Planting Up.