Bio Security and Plant Health
Plant health is major focus of our business not only to ensure we deliver great looking plants but also to ensure the health and wellbeing of our native plants and food crops from foreign pests and diseases.
As responsible growers we fully comply with all regulations on plant health and are registered with Defra and authorised to issues plant passports. As we are plant traders as well as growers, we use the IPAFFS system to report imports of plants to Defra and as a result our stock is checked on a regular basis for notifiable pests and diseases.
Xylella fastidiosa
“Xylella fastidiosa is one of the most harmful bacterial plant diseases in the world. It can cause severe losses in a wide range of hosts and there would be a massive impact on the plant trade across all business sectors in the event of an outbreak in the UK.” For this reason, we have signed up to the HTA responsible sourcing statement:
“We have taken the decision NOT to knowingly purchase any host plants originating from regions where the disease Xylella is known to exist. The decision has been taken after detailed consideration as to the potential catastrophic impact the introduction of the disease could have to the UK environment, coupled with the ever-increasing number of host plant genera of this disease. This is in line with DEFRA’s good practice recommendations.
More information on the disease can be found below.
UK Government Plant Pest Factsheet Xylella Fastidiosa
We work closely with all our suppliers to ensure all the stock that enters the nursery is free from pests and diseases and that they have a rigorous bio security policy in place. All stock that enters the nursery is checked for any issues before it is moved to our growing beds or sales areas and notifications are made to Defra where needed.
Pest and Disease control on the Nursery
Our stock is checked on a regular basis by our staff for any issues with pests and disease, we use a wide range of control products some chemical and some Biological. We are very conscious of the detrimental impact chemical use can have on the environment and have actively reduced our reliance on these products in favour of more environmental controls. As we and our partners within the industry move towards a much greener product our focus will be more to control outbreaks of pests and diseases rather than to aim for a fully clean sterile product.
