Clippings: news for gardeners
The future of British-grown bedding plants hangs in the balance after the closure of garden centres due to coronavirus restrictions left nurseries struggling to survive.
The shutdown hit during peak production for wholesale bedding growers, leaving them with millions of plants but nowhere to sell them. The Horticultural Trades Association
(HTA) has begun “very positive” talks with government ministers over a £250 million plant scrappage scheme, backed by Alan Titchmarsh.
HTA president Boyd Douglas-Davies fears a third of UK growers could go bust, forcing garden centres to buy abroad. “There’s a risk we won’t be able to buy British, with the higher carbon footprint and imported disease risks that brings,” he tells us. The introduction of xylella from mainland Europe is a huge concern, with popular plants including lavender at risk from the disease.
Natalie Porter, of Porter’s Fuchsias in Lancashire, says she expects to lose £170,000 a week in May. The nursery has been delivering locally and donating plants to hospitals, but she estimates the plants held in her greenhouses
would fill 800 articulated lorries. Most will be composted. “Suggestions we can give them away or deliver them ourselves are well meaning but slightly naïve,” she says. “Even if we manage 50 deliveries a day, that’s 2 per cent of our normal volume.”
Pop-up delivery services such as Lockdown Gardener ( lockdowngardener.com) and PlantSavers ( plantsavers.co.uk),
offering plants destined to be composted, are helping. Other nurseries, like Welsh wholesaler Seiont Nurseries, are switching to mail order. Owner Neil Alcock says he took £5,000 over Easter on his website lovegardeningdirect.com
– but normal turnover is £100,000 a week. He’s now counting on the early reopening of garden centres to sell late-summer bedding. At the time of going to press, there’s strong speculation garden centres may reopen by mid-May.
Douglas-Davies points to Germany, where garden centres are open under strict social distancing, saying a similar approach here could “save the UK horticulture industry”.
◼ Check nurseries that offer mail order at gardenersworld.com/plants-online
A third of UK growers could go bust