Leading UK nurseries have agreed to trial a prototype for a Plant Health Management System in 2017 following new fears over the spread of diseases in UK plant stock.

At the suggestion of the HTA, Boningale Nurseries, developed the template and will have the support of Johnsons of Whixley, Hillier Nurseries, Bransford, Allensmore, The Newey Group, Oakover Nurseries and Farplants during the trial. The government’s Chief Plant Health Officer, Professor Nicola Spence, has been invited to join the working group.

If implemented, possibly by 2018, the system would ensure total traceability of all plants traded in the UK.

The HTA’s Raoul Curtis-Machin says designers and landscapers would be able to specify ‘approved’ plants and garden centres would have the assurance they were selling healthy stock.

The latest international plant health scare involves outbreaks of Xylella fastidiosa, a disease that has been devastating olive trees in southern Italy, with various sub species causing damage in Corsica, the South of France and a small nursery in East Germany. It affects host plants by invading their water-conducting systems.

It has not reached Britain, but if it did, it would mean a five-year ban on plant movements within 10km of the outbreak. All potential host plants within 100m would be destroyed.

Left: Xylella on prunus. The disease affects a plant's ability to take up water.