The Met Office warns there is an increased risk, later this month, of prolonged cold conditions over the UK with an easterly wind and significant snow, having detected Sudden Stratospheric Warming above the North Pole. Read more

The EU has finally lifted the threat to glyphosate by licencing it for a further 5 years. The herbicide is the active ingredient in Roundup and many other systemic weedkillers used in the garden. Read more

New EU measures for plants at high-risk of carrying Xylella include preventing their movement anywhere in the EU except from sites which have been officially inspected. Read more

As the deadline nears, the EU has delayed the decision on whether to re-licence glyphosate. France and Italy threaten to vote against the weight of science as friction between Monsanto and the EU grows. Read more

Dobbies got no help from the Police when uninvited travellers pitched their vans in the car park of Peterborough Garden Centre last Wednesday. Read more

The HTA describes the massive impact on the plant trade across all business sectors in the event of an outbreak of Xylella fastidiosa in the UK. What should UK businesses be doing? Read more

Do we face opening the UK market to imports from the US? LOFA members fear exchange rate volatility. The HTA is concerned about retaining the relationship it has built with Government on ways to promote plant health and cut plant imports.  Read more

Following reports of genetically modified petunias being sold in Finland, the HTA has alerted the UK authorities to their existence in the UK supply chain. Read more

Plant health authorities are urging palm growers, importers and retailers to be on the lookout for Red palm weevil, a threat to palm trees, which was identified in the UK for the first time in October 2016. Read more

Defra plant health chief, Nicola Spence, outlined the pest and disease threats, explained what the Government does and backed the HTA’s new plant health management pilot. Read more

2016 is likely to break the global temperature record but 2017 is likely to be cooler says the Met Office. Read more

The HTA and leading nurseries are to pilot a Plant Health Management System as the potentially devastating Xylella disease is found in Germany Read more

An emergency summit aiming to find an industry-led solution to the threat of vine weevil will hear from BASF the UK’s only producers of nematodes. Read more

The EU has until Thursday to decide whether or not to re-licence glyphosate. But discussions on Brexit has pushed it off the EU Commissioners’ agenda. Read more

EU committee again fails to renew glyphosate licence despite revised proposals. If not approved member states will have to withdraw authorisation of the weedkiller.   Read more

2017 started with a flourish but lost momentum and settled to be an OK year. Suppliers worried about Brexit, the living wage, higher costs and Wyevale. Retailers and growers worried about Xylella. Takeover activity reached new peaks among suppliers, but no major garden centres changed hands. The industry said goodbye to some old friends. Read our review – (open to non-subscribers). Read more

With growing signs that Government is sympathetic to supporting ornamental horticulture, the HTA’s Raoul Curtis-Machin told a Parliamentary committee that growers could reduce plant imports and improve bio-security if given the right backing. Read more

MEPs say the EU should draw up plans to phase out glyphosate by 2020, starting with a complete ban on household use. Read more

Scotts Miracle-Gro called on the ASA (Advertising Standards Agency) to find that two adverts for Safelawn by Westland were misleading. Their complaint was not upheld. Read more

“Xylella is the biggest, scariest threat in my 30 years in the industry…  There is no messing about with this, we must protect our industry,” says an HTA panelist. An outbreak means no plant movements within 10k for 5 years. Read more

FOE draws commitment from garden centre groups not to sell flowering plants grown with neonicotinoids as EFSA draws near to decision on a permanent ban. Read more

Manufacturers dispute research findings that neonicotinoids damage bees' ability to reproduce. Read more

The Daily Mail says that ‘insect-friendly’ plants sold in garden centres and supermarkets are laced with chemicals that could be killing bees. Read more

Met Office forecasters expect the current ‘colder-than-average’ conditions to remain, with a colder plunge anticipated across the UK next week.

News from Cardwell garden centre that the supermarket shortage of lettuce and courgette has created a surge in demand for seed has gone viral. Read more

2016 saw second tier garden centre chains and independents invest as Wyevale consolidated. Homebase and Argos are sold. The HTA moved offices and moved to become the lead association for all gardening related businesses. Glyphosate, Xylella and the weather made frequent headlines. Scotts and Bayer looked for a way out of distributing consumer garden chemicals. Read our review – open to all. Read more

Buglife reports that an invasive flatworm from Brazil that is already a threat to agriculture across France and is spreading rapidly through Europe has arrived in the UK.  Read more

The HTA conference heard that 50% or gardens would need irrigation by 2050 as summers get warmer and drier and growing seasons will be longer. Read more

EU grants an 18 month extension for glyphosate based products as the Health Commissioner expresses concern that that member states could not accept EU commission proposals. Read more

Earlier today a specialist EU committee refused to back even a limited extension to the licence for glyphosate, the main active ingredient in weedkillers such as Roundup, Resolva and Deadfast, which expires at the end of the month. Read more