HTA Column – Tales of the unexpected

Tales of the unexpected

Boyd J Douglas-Davies, HTA President

That pretty much sums up the last two years, and just when you thought you had got rid of me and a new HTA President was due, the unexpected happens and I’m still here! If recent times have taught us one thing it must be to have contingency plans in place for every eventuality and more besides!

The next few years will bring several known changes and connected challenges. The restrictions on the use of peat will ultimately bring volumes down to zero. Manufacturers are dealing with this at the moment and from what I’ve seen this year at NIAB and Levington they are well on the way to identifying great alternatives. But, if you have historically had self-sufficient water resources on your nursery or garden centre don’t be complacent as all known peat free mixes require much more water, maybe twice as much. I was fortunate enough to have an opportunity to make this very point to Rebecca Pow, Environment Minister, recently. Along with Martin Emmett of Farplants, I had a full discussion with her at the Chelsea Flower Show about the numerous challenges our industry faces. The message from her, back to industry, was please educate your local MPs and Ministers as the more they know about us, an industry

they’re all looking to support, the better. Consider inviting your local Parliamentarians to visit your business. The HTA happily helps to facilitate these meetings so do get in touch if you’d like to be a host. Did you visit the one-off Autumn Chelsea Flower Show? It was great to see the alternative colours that the season allowed and the wide variety of plants. If ever our trade needed a reminder that autumn is a great time in the garden then it was at Chelsea loud and clear! Alongside the wonderful, but costly, gardens on main avenue from the likes of Mark Gregory,please educate your Ann-Marie Powell etc there were local MPs and Ministers as the brilliant gardens throughout the show. Highlights for me included the hugely more they know about us, an popular Forge Garden from Blue industry they’re all looking to Diamond Peter Sea and the Pyramid created by brook. Both were excellent support, the better showcases for the plants we all sell. Back to contingency planning... Have you got plans in place to deal with the high freight costs that aren’t going to drop anytime soon? The lack of plastic pots and trays that is going to impact every grower in the UK and Europe next year? The cardboard shortage that will affect dry goods manufacturers and even some growers who have turned to cardboard trays in recent years instead of plastic? Labour shortage is an international issue that I don’t see being resolved quickly so how do we deal with this as an industry? I think we need to work together to create opportunities for permanent teams to be shared across companies at different times of year. There must be growers close to Garden Centres that don’t need all of their team from Oct to Jan – just when centres are looking for more people. Joined up thinking now could lead to year-round contracts with continuous service. I’m writing this article on a plane, my first flight in over two years, heading to Ireland to inspect our Christmas Tree crop. From there I go to Holland to meet with houseplant growers. As difficult as it is at the moment to get product over the water we do need to keep the supply chain flowing as smoothly as possible. The HTA is working tirelessly on everyone’s behalf to improve the processes involved. If you’re facing particular challenges do please let the team at Horticulture House know.

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The Horticultural Trades Association is the UK industry’s leading membership organisation. It welcomes all sectors of horticulture – to join please contact services@hta.org.uk.