Because of a commentmade earlier in this thread, now removed, I have received the following email:
Without Prejudice:
Good Afternoon,
I have just been looking on the accidental small holder and came across this piece written below, not sure if the reference to website is correct to the individual that wrote this and my apologies if this is not you. We would
Re: Need Hedges « Reply #1 on: November 07, 2012, 06:54:02 PM »Well in the past I would have recommended Buckingham Nurseries but as they appear to be one source of the Ash Dieback disease (imported ash from China) they are off my Christmas list.
We found from bitter experience that it's better to go for good old fashioned bare root plants in winter than to spend a lot on rootrainer-grown plants.
Whereabouts are you, as local suppliers are probably better than national oneIn reference to the comments made am afraid you don’t seem to have all the facts and the I feel it proper to correct your comments to prevent further misinformation. We do not import from China and never have. All 600 infected plants including 1400 negative were destroyed. We have refunded and compensated all our customers.
Our 10.9acre site and surrounding area has been tested by Fera and is negative, the last two years batches of Fraxinus have been tested by Fera and are negative. We do not have any Ash saplings or any other varieties on our nursery. 95% of our stock is of uk provenance, when the uk market runs out we as well as most traders including most online companies, source the plants from reputable companies on the continent. This clearly will not be the case in the future.
Following our press release to the trade this was the first to report on our companies name rather than a Buckingham Nursery (HortWeek) followed by the mail on Sunday BBC TV and Three Counties Radio.
The first nursery to spot ash dieback in the UK says if it had not told Defra then the Government would have delayed further letting the public know about the devastating disease.Chalara fraxinea has now been confirmed in trees in 14 nurseries, 36 planting sites and 32 locations in woodland.Defra has been criticised, notably by HTA, Confor and Crowder’s Nursery, for acting too slowly to combat the disease, which is predicted to wipe out Britain’s 80m ash. The industry is demanding compensation and answers on how the disease was allowed to spread, as well as looking for antidotes to the disease.The Government banned imports and UK movement of ash on 29 October. HTA suggested an import ban in 2009.And Buckingham Nurseries general manager Mike Easom said that it was in late 2011 the nursery received a consignment of 2,000 Fraxinus excelsior plants from a nursery in Holland, had one bundle with “suspect markings” which he put into quarantine to show a visiting FERA inspector due for a routine visit on 20 February. Because the nursery wanted to find out exactly what was wrong they bought the ash to the attention of the inspector and he immediately took samples for laboratory analysis. “Had we not brought them to his attention they would, most likely, have been overlooked as Fraxinus was not a species he had on his list to give particular attention to,” said Easom.On the 7 March 2012 FERA emailed to confirm Chalara fraxinea (Ash Dieback) in the samples were positive and we were requested to isolate the infected trees. This is a serious disease, but is not notifiable in this country. On the 13 March 2012 FERA advised suspension all sales of ash, with plants quarantined.Easom said: “We were very concerned that we had despatched ash plants that, although looking perfectly healthy, were in close proximity to the infected plants.” He supplied FERA with the names and addresses of all customers to he had posted plants to. The nursery and FERA contacted all customers.Easom added that the Dutch nursery supplied 17 other UK nurseries with ash but “it took considerable time for other nurseries to be contacted”.He said: “Our concerns now are that having pressed FERA many times, we understand that they still have not visited all the sites to get trees destroyed if necessary. We cannot find out if all other nurseries have been contacted and that they have put in place measures to get any infected trees destroyed. “We cannot understand why nurseries like ourselves were not warned in advance to keep a vigilant eye for the disease. Also why when the disease was found in February, an immediate import ban was not imposed and everyone in the trade and woodland owners were not alerted by DEFRA. Many more trees could have been imported from to the end of the season - the end of March. Also trees already in the country were not isolated and there was no movement ban put in place until 29 October 2012, some 236 days have elapsed after the notice was served.”Easom said now the disease has come in on the east coast, possibly carried by wind from the continent, “if knowledge of the disease had been made publically available long ago, it is possible that landowners in the east counties would have spotted the signs earlier and appropriate action could have been taken.“This matter has obviously caused us a great deal of concern as we wanted to make sure we were not in any way helping to spread this most unwelcome disease. In retrospect, had we taken the irresponsible attitude of simply burning the trees we were not happy about and not getting them inspected, this matter would probably have not come to light and more infected young trees would still be moving around the country.”Easom said to address the lack of trade and public knowledge, he alerted Horticulture Week, which ran the first article on the disease hitting Britain, on 7 June.He recommended a one stop place/app/notification system, to warn of threats of potential pest and diseases to the trade and to the general public, in which you can simply sign up to receive notification messages.”We would appreciate you retracting your misinformed comments from your post.
Thank you for your cooperation and please don’t hesitate to contact me if you would like any other information.
Regards,
Michael Easom
Buckingham Nurseries & Garden Centre
Direct Tel: 01280 827939,
Switchboard: 01280 822133,
Fax: 0871 594 2950
www.buckingham-nurseries.co.uk
Topic: Need Hedges (Read 6795 times)
