24 Jan

News

Plant Passport Update January 2020

Here at Country Herbs & Plants we have been working closely with Plant Health and are pleased to announce that we are compliant with current regulations as follows:

• At present we are permitted to issue a multi genus plant passport reference document in the plant passport format on the end of every trolley (We have added this new feature to our delivery notes)
• Legislation states at present this is compliant enough however, to help our customers we are also attaching a tray end label in the plant passport format to every tray.
• We are also currently working on our plant passport being on each individual care card going forward for the future.

We Hope this clarifies any questions you may have and we are keeping updated with any changes!

26 Nov

News Uncategorised

Our Environmental Contribution

We pride ourselves on being environmentally friendly. We work closely with a local recycling company who take away all or polythene and film, cardboard PE plastic and PS plastics. Our general waste is also sorted by a company who send nothing to landfill. Waste plants are composted. We are also 20% peat reduced.

28 Jun

News Seasonal

Allium Quattro

ALLIUM QUATTRO

1 Litre Allium Quattro is now available. This perennial Allium has large, hardy mauve flowers as well as thick foliage.  You are able to consume its large beautiful flowers and the rest of this fantastic Allium, including its corms and young flower stalks too!   The Allium Quattro is a beautiful and delicious patio or garden perennial and flowers in July for about 7 weeks.  The flowers also have a great attraction for insects such as bees and butterflies.

14 Jun

News Plants

HTA National Plant Show 18/19 June 2019

We’ll be attending the HTA National Plant Show next week. Come view our plants on stand 57.

To view the floor plan, please click the following link HTA_joint_hall_plan

For more information please visit www.nationalplantshow.co.uk

27 Mar

Herbs New Products Plants

New Pot Range

As you will all know the use of plastics in all areas, commercial horticulture included has fallen under close scrutiny in 2018.  In our sector, supplying the Garden Centre trade, it is pots that are felt to be the priority as these end up being distributed all around the country, to consumers’ homes.  Transport trays end up at Garden Centres from where it is normally possible for them to be palletised and then recycled.

At Country Herbs and Plants we have spent a lot of time this last Autumn and Winter exploring the various options available to us within the market.  We also sent out a questionnaire to you, our customers and most who responded favoured the use of a pot that was both made from recycled waste that was in turn recyclable in kerbside bins.  We are pleased to say that we have found a range of Taupe coloured pots that tick these boxes.  These pots are made by Aeroplas, a UK company, using UK origin post-consumer waste.  These Taupe pots are carbon pigment free which means that it is far easier for them to be recycled again.

We believe that the pots that we have chosen are the best and greenest commercial option available at this time.  We are now potting into the new taupe pots so you will begin to see some coming your way in the forthcoming weeks.  There will be a period of time when we will be out loading orders where some trays are of the old black pots and others are in the new taupe pot.  Unfortunately this is unavoidable and whilst it will look a little untidy the alternative would be to create unnecessary waste plastic which hardly seems appropriate in the circumstances.

We hope that you and your customers will all appreciate the steps that we and other nurseries are taking to address the serious issues surrounding the issue of plastics.

18 Feb

News

New CC Trolley Tag System

As I’m sure you are all aware Container Centralen have introduced a new trolley tag at the start of 2019, just as they did with the red tag a few years ago and the black before that.

At the start of 2019 one new tag was issued to each trolley with a CC contract.  People with CC trolley contracts can get broken trolleys and shelves repaired as required.

 Quite a lot of nurseries and hauliers have now implemented the new tags on 100% of their trolleys.  Other people, either have not yet fitted their tags or don’t have any trolleys on contract so have no tags to fit!

Some companies who have no trolleys on contract are asking for their orders to be loaded onto Red Tag trolleys in the hope that a system can be run within the system.  Unfortunately this is just not going to work.  Hauliers will have to separate Red and New Tag trolleys and exchange the correct ones.  The system will become a huge muddle and potentially affect us all when the season is in full swing.

The smooth running of the trolley exchange system is absolutely vital to all of us.  Whether we are growers, hauliers or garden centres and retailers so we feel that the only way for things to work smoothly is for everyone to be within ONE system and this really needs to be the New Tag.  As of the Monday 4^th of March we will be going over entirely to the New Tag.

Deliveries made to customers without New Tag trolleys to exchange will have to off load the trolley upon delivery.  Even this is a source of potential issues with some hauliers talking of potentially having to levy a unloading surcharge because they will lose a lot of time if their drivers are having to unload lots of trolleys by hand.

Whilst we can see why people resist going into the CC system to save a cost, efficient trolley movements are so important to this industry it starts to look like a false economy.  Currently you can pay a one off fee of £5.10 per base with a £3.62 annual rental.  Nobody likes a cost but sometimes spending is worthwhile and the alternative here is a lot of headaches at peak season which isn’t very appealing at all!

04 Jan

News Plants

Wallflowers

We have a great selection of 1 Litre Wallflowers available now for some early colour.  Please see our current availability list for details of varieties.

To enable promotion of Wallflowers, we have a bespoke complimentary point of sale board available (please ask for details).

25 Jul

Herbs News

Special Trolley Deal Price for week 31 on selected Lavender, Rosemary & Sage

We are able to offer some selected lines at a special offer price for week 31 delivery on a first come first served basis.  These are all beautiful quality 9cm plants suitable, either for retail or perfect for use as liners.  See photos.

This offer applies to a trolley or more of the offer lines and is your normal price less 25 %

The following are available, all in our usual tall 9cm pots.

2000 x Lavender Hidcote

2000 x Lavender Munstead

1500 x Rosemary Officinalis

1500 x Rosemary BBQ

1000 x Salvia Officinalis

300   x Salvia Icterina

300   x Salvia Tricolour

300   x Salvia Purple

04 Dec

News

We are recruiting

31 Oct

News

Company Statement for Xylella and Neonicotinoids

Xylella and Neonicotinoids are both major conversation points at the present we have decided to let all of our customers know how we stand on both topics.

Xylella

We do source some of our young plants from outside the UK. These come from continents that are non Xylella demarcated.

These plants are purchased as young plug plants which will be grown on at our nursery for several months. We DO NOT trade any plants.

In summary We DO NOT purchase ANY plant material from infected areas. We DO NOT trade any plants and we have regular plant inspections by Animal & Plant Health Agency. All plants that we sell are accompanied by a plant passport.

Neonicotinoids.

We are NOT using Neonicotinoids on ANY of our garden plants and will NOT be in the future.

One of our young plant suppliers, based in Israel, may, under exceptional circumstances use a neonicotinoid up to twice a year if they have a particular issue but these sprays are used inside a glasshouse so there is no danger of drift into the environment. They are currently working on finding alternatives.

Friends of the Earth bee campaigner Nick Rau said: “We’re aware there are supply chain issues to resolve, such as plug plants originating from Israel, Colombia, Kenya or wherever, and this will take time to sort out.”

Our garden plants are free of UK applied Neonicotinoids.