New HTA President Stan Green opened the HTA Futures conference by passionately reminding us all that plants are our at our core and that we should make more of them.

"There is a remarkable truth in horticulture.  People genuinely love plants.  We all have a connection with them.  We have been around plants for hundreds of thousands of years.  This remarkable truth is a beautiful one.  Plants are inherently aesthetically pleasing.  To lose sight of the emotive element of what we do is to lose sight of our core and our usp. 

"The beautiful truth is that we trade in an amazing product that brings joy and comfort to so many people.  The beautiful truth is our product promotes sustainable healthy living.  When the penny finally drops I’m sure that we will all recognise the asset the beautiful truth we are all privileged to work with daily.

"Gardening hasn’t lost it’s mojo, the British people have not fallen out of love with gardening, gardening and the trade that supports it has always been unpredictable.  

Stan went on to quote Dr Alan Knight: “If gardening didn’t exist, sustainability would invent it.  Nothing else connects people with nature, provides passive exercise, reduces stress, helps wildlife, and is just good fun.” 

The HTA President then asked: "How about that as a strap line for our industry? How about that for the beautiful truth?

"I think promoting should be easy for us, what we do is all about people and plants, what we do is bring people and plants together.  Let’s lift our own horizons, let’s see what’s happening in the rest of the world.  To ignore what’s going on there we do at our peril.

"The time to promote is now.  We have a message.  Offer your time to anyone who will listen, local radio, schools."



Read more coverage from the HTA conference in this GTN Xtra Conference Special and look out for more coverage in this weekends GTN Xtra and the November issue of GTN.