Government cracks down on illegal plant imports
You can buy almost anything from a safe source in the UK, so why take the risk?
Ordinary gardens are the new front line in the battle against non-native pests and diseases, and the Government wants to enlist gardeners in the fight to keep them out. “The public really get it – and they want to help,” Chief Plant Health Officer Nicola Spence told GW. She’s making it her job to ensure everyone in the UK knows the risks involved in buying plants that might be carrying potentially devastating diseases. “Let’s get everybody understanding the issues and living them, so we can protect our plants and trees,” she says. The governments of England, Scotland and Wales are joining charities and organisations across the UK in signing an accord to spread the word about buying plants carefully to avoid accidentally introducing diseases. It’s set to be a central plank in the Government’s plant health strategy, published this summer. We spend about £1 billion a year on plants shipped into the UK legally. But plant inspectors also seize and destroy millions of pounds’ worth of illegally imported plants each year. Some arrive via tourists, even though all plants and seeds must have official health certificates to cross the UK border (including from the European Union). Others arrive in the post: as GW reported last year (‘Clippings’ July 2021), you can still buy plants that are known carriers of the deadly bacterial disease Xylella fastidiosa from growers in at-risk countries via online auction sites without legally required plant health certificates. Xylella isn’t in the UK yet, but Charles Carr, wholesale manager for Hillier Nurseries, says it’s a constant worry. “You’ve only got to look at diseases that have come in under the radar – like fuchsia gall mite – that came back in someone’s suitcase from holiday,” he says. Hillier quarantines incoming plants and carries out forensic checks before allowing any into the nursery, to catch any pests that may have escaped customs spot checks. These precautions make buying plants from reputable UK nurseries, online or in person, far safer, says GW regular and Horticultural Trades Association horticulture manager Pippa Greenwood. “You can buy almost anything from a safe source in the UK, so why take the risk?” she says. “That one little plant could be the one that changes everything.”