The Royal Horticultural Society has announced its endorsement of the Agralan range of pest prevention products, which offers home gardeners, commercial growers and retailers protection from garden pests with minimal use of pesticides and environmentally aware use of materials.
The range includes: mesh for crop protection; fleeces for general garden use; cabbage collars; a plug plant trainer; and insect traps.
The endorsement will be formally launched at the Garden Press Event at London’s Business Design Centre on 27 February. The endorsed range will appear at garden centres from April, supplied by wholesalers such as Decco and Stax Homehardware. It will also be available through mail order and online via seed companies such as Suttons, Dobies, Marshalls and Mr. Fothergill’s as well as through crop protection companies like Gardening Naturally, online garden centres like Crocus and many others. The target market for the range is expected to be professional and amateur gardeners growing fruit and vegetables.
The endorsement will be indicated by an RHS logo, which will be prominently displayed on the product packaging.
All products in the Agralan range aim to minimise the use of pesticides and reduce the use of plastics. Permafelt (used for growing) is made from recycled plastic water bottles, while the netting – called Enviromesh – has a very long lifespan. Many products are designed to be recyclable or reusable to encourage environmentally responsible gardening.
The Garden Press Event, at which the endorsement will be formally launched, was set up in 2006 to bring together suppliers of garden products with trade and consumer editors from both print and broadcast outlets.
Agralan was formed in 1986 by managing director Alan Frost. It evolved from an advisory service to become a supplier of insect monitoring traps to commercial growers and amateur gardeners. Codling moth and yellow sticky traps, Enviromesh, biological controls and more followed, including the Permafelt range, based on products produced from recycled plastic water bottles.
With 56 licensees to date, the RHS licensing programme continues to build its reach into numerous categories such as homeware, apparel and gifts, while retaining and extending its position as a leading gardening charity partnering numerous major names in gardening and horticulture.
Alan Frost, MD, Agralan, says: “We have been in this business for many years and constantly strived to be environmentally responsible as well as to offer practical and helpful pest prevention products to gardeners and growers. This endorsement is an enormously welcome recognition of our work from the leading gardening charity in the UK.”
Cathy Snow, RHS Licensing Manager, added: “It takes a strong commitment to quality, effectiveness, the environment and sustainability to receive an RHS endorsement for pest control and crop protection products. With its commitment to recyclability, reusability and minimal use of pesticides, as well as diverse and highly effective products, Agralan impresses on all counts.”
