Around France's Chateau de Chambord, the scene is highly unusual this year. Lawns and flowerbeds, usually lush and green, have turned yellow and brown under the combined impact of drought and intense heat.
After several heatwaves, the ground is exceptionally dry and the vegetation is struggling to recover.
In the estate's formal French gardens, the gardeners are watching the consequences of this water stress. And this year, even some trees are showing signs of distress. The situation raises pressing questions about the future of these historic landscapes.
According to the château's head gardener, Julien Billon, "At first, we didn't really see it on the trees; it was mainly the low vegetation with shallow roots. Now we can see that this heatwave has started to affect the trees' root systems (...) and I think we are going to see damage, but it will be delayed over time. In fact, some trees may take two or three years to decline. But the impact of this year's heatwave is very, very severe."
Beyond the purely aesthetic aspect, the entire approach to managing the gardens is about to change. As climate change accelerates, managing water resources has become a major strategic challenge. With extreme heatwaves and summer droughts likely to become the norm, maintaining traditional horticultural practices will require a profound rethink.
To respond to this new reality, the teams at the Domaine national de Chambord have embarked on a wide-ranging rethink of the plants used across the estate. The aim is to select more resilient species capable of withstanding high temperatures and coping with long periods of water shortage.
Choosing xerophytes (plants adapted to dry conditions) and planting more robust trees has now become essential.
But it is a demanding balancing act, as they must preserve the grandeur, structure and visual identity of these historic gardens while drastically reducing their water use.
At Chambord, where human ingenuity has been shaping the landscape for nearly five centuries, a new and decisive phase is beginning. Once guided by the pursuit of prestige and perfect symmetry, these gardens are now writing a new chapter in their history, this time dictated by the demands of a changing climate.
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