On 25/04/17 13:36, Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
Ermin Trude wrote:

I didn't see the mention of 5 packets of seeds.

It was there. It's typical Whitehall bureaucracy - there's no limit
if you import them commercially.

Maybe I worry too much about 'alien species' but one only has to look at
the havoc caused by the import of such plants as Himalayan Balsam and
other such plants.

Like, er, negligible? There is a hell of a lot of hysteria about
such things, but they aren't an ecological problem IN THE UK. The
point is that almost the entirety of our non-marine ecology is
comprised of species that have been introduced or have invaded in
the past 11,000 years.

That would have been true 50 years ago, but things like Dutch Elm
Disease and now the threat to ash from Ash Dieback and possible threat
of the Emerald Ash Borer are major ecological problems. The threat is
not only from plants, but what may be brought in on those plants. It's
true that our "problems" with Himalayan Balsam and Japanese Knotweed
pale into insignificance when compared to Water Hyacinth in tropical
countries, Hakea in South Africa, and the now non-existent Opuntia in
Australia, but that doesn't mean there isn't a plant out there which
couldn't become a threat.

--

Jeff