Thank you to all those who have offered to take “plants that would otherwise be thrown away or wasted” off our hands but we do not have any plants of this kind. We had not yet received our perishable plants.

You will have seen this week’s news item about the plight of growers in the horticultural industry but I feel that many of you may have missed the point that the growers were trying to put across….

They spend the Autumn/Winter/early spring months taking reserve orders for, planning, seeding and sorting their bedding plants out which they then deliver into garden centres on a just-in-time basis so that the plants are fresh as for the end customer. It’s like farmers selling into the supermarkets.

All it takes is a bout of bad weather, enforced closure of their garden centre customers, along with an unusual viral infection that prevents their seasonal staff’s ability to work or the like to kill the demand and they are utterly ruined – all their efforts and life savings thrown away in the blink of an eye.

So today I ask you spare a thought for those growers who are lobbying Government to save their industry by way of a plant scrappage scheme while they are unable to get them to you, the end customer. And in the meantime allow us do our best to respond to the dedicated gardeners out there who just enjoy spending time in their garden.

Thank you.