On 2013-10-17 13:50:23 +0000, News said:

On 17/10/2013 13:44, sacha wrote:
Some gcs or nurseries mark plants as
raised in UK which have in fact been propagated abroad in vast
quantities, brought into UK and then potted on.

A disgraceful and misleading practice - and one that a lot of the large
food providers also pull

Except that nobody is eating their paeonies that we know of and that I
don't think we've known of one customer ask the provenance of a plant.
Equally, we don't label them misleadingly but we DO know of someone
selling organic herbs as "potted in UK". Guess where they were
propagated. Caveat emptor.

This trade has arisen
partly because the industry here has received so little support in terms
of e.g. oil prices that it simply doesn't pay to do everything from
scratch in UK for the huge garden centre chains.

Why should they receive any assistance - and from where? Wouldn't it
be an illegal subsidy?

No more than any assistance given to e.g. French farmers. Since the
war, when we needed to produce great amounts of our own food,
horticulture has become a bit of a Cinderella industry in those terms.
It's a question of economics and keeping people in work and there's a
good deal of discussion in the trade press and elsewhere about
interesting young people in it as a career. The Dutch have done a lot
to help their horticultural industry, aiui, so many plants currently
coming into UK come from there. Our local tiny flower shop is often
seen with a huge Dutch artic outside, delivering cut flowers, for
example.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon