... no, not herbaceous borders, but national ones!
Here in the EU we can no longer buy plants from UK sources, thanks to the UK Government excluding phytosanitary rules (plant health, plant passports, etc) from its negotiations after Brexit. That's disappointing for EU gardeners, but across the EU you can find pretty well everything you could order from the UK, it's just much harder to locate it. There is no EU version of the RHS Plant Finder, and ordering from other countries can mean language problems, and even currency problems as well.
Today I had a wonderful parcel of plants from Denmark - my first 'shopping trip' to that country.
Thank you www.thyboesminde.dk - a fine range, and an interesting selection of plants of good size delivered quickly and cheaply. What did I get? Mainly geraniums for shady areas - rare cultivars of G. nodosum and G. phaeum. A rare Aster (sorry, I know they aren't called that any longer...), and a fascinating hardy Fuchsia with tiny multicoloured flowers. I'm delighted, and will shop there again!
But... the mad thing is that most of these fine plants originate from UK breeders! So, that source of new plants will dry up in the coming years. UK breeders will be unable to sell into the EU markets, leaving us (and them!) poorer in one way or another.
UK plant growing on a large scale is virtually extinct - the big Garden Centres and multiples have bought in more cheaply from the Netherlands (and France!), and the biggest UK garden plant growing operations have gone out of business. 'Time for new UK growers to set up' - yes! But... growers would have to emerge, set themselves up (UK land prices!), spend years building capacity, learn to read the market again,and start growing plants for the UK mass market. (Of course there are still lots of small UK growers, but most are specialised, and lack space or capacity to match EU mass producers.) The investment of time and money will have to be huge - it will be years before the UK has a serious amenity horticulture growing industry again, and when it does it means plants will have to be a lot more expensive for UK gardeners in order to pay for it all.
In the meantime, to keep the UK going (and fed!) the UK Government keeps deferring application of the rules they have agreed, meaning that for the moment the cheaper Dutch and French stock is still being imported (without the agreed checks!), meaning that there is no incentive to set up growing in the UK! British growers are crippled by the loss of strong export markets (David Austin Roses have a fully functional website in French, but can't even export to Northern Ireland any longer, let alone across the Channel!), but at home potential British producers for domestic markets are being undermined by unregulated cheaper EU imports.
Will somebody, please, tell me this isn't bonkers?
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