Haskins Garden Centres’ Plant Health Policy

 

Last updated: 22.05.2018

We take the health of the plants we sell very seriously. We work with the HTA (Horticultural Trade Association), who work closely with DEFRA to ensure standards and measures are in place to help protect UK plants and the environment. We are also active members of the GCA (Garden Centre Association) which as a group works to drive best practice and standards in garden centres across the country.

At Haskins we only buy the best quality, healthiest plants from reputable, trusted nurseries where we can trace the origin of our plants and confirm that best practice procedures are in place. Our suppliers are rigorously checked and inspected by DEFRA.

All imported plants are traceable through a plant passport system which logs the date of entry into the country, the grower, and the country of origin, this ensures we can fully track plants back to the original nursery. The plant passports are logged by us on arrival and records kept.

Any plants brought back into our centres by customers with potential bugs or disease are double bagged, cabled tied and disposed of responsibly as recommended by DEFRA.

If we feel there is a potential risk of poor plant performance or disease we will choose not to stock certain plants and will take advice from the HTA to inform our decision.

We have signed up to the HTA Statement.

“We have taken the decision NOT to knowingly purchase any host plants originating from regions where the disease Xylella is known to exist. This 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.”

https://hta.org.uk/assurance-compliance/plant-and-disease-alert-xylella-fastidiosa.html

Currently, in addition to the HTA standard, we have taken the decision not to stock the plants which are deemed as ‘high risk’ from specific areas of Southern Europe where outbreaks have been detected. This includes Italian Olives, French Lavender and Rosemary, Italian Herbs, Coffee plants, Polygala and Nerine. Where possible, for 2018, we will source alternatives from the UK or other European countries which are unaffected.