How does your garden grow?
Jo Cobb is a gardener, a concerned gardener. Her horticultural know-how drew our attention to a story that could affect - well, all of us. Here's part of her email:
It seems that DEFRA are going to ban the growing and sale of plants like Cotoneaster, Turkey Oak and Holm Oak and if we grow these plants we could be prosecuted under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 with unlimited fines and 2 years imprisonment. Consultation runs out jan 2008.
I am a professional gardener and I grow all these beautiful plants. I just hope they will let me work in the prison garden when I'm locked up. Please find out what is going on for us.
DEFRA issued a press release last week. The consultation is now underway. But the devil is in the detail (PDF file). What then for the future of Cotoneaster, Turkey Oak or Holm Oak?
iPM has been speaking to someone who knows about these things. John Cushnie is part of the Gardeners' Question Time panel.
Here's the official line from DEFRA:
Plants such as the Cotoneaster, Turkey Oak and Holm Oak are being considered for inclusion in the updated list of species whose introduction into the wild without a licence should be made an offence - this would only affect the planting or causing of these species to grow in the wild.
These three species are not included in the second part of the consultation which considers banning the sale of 28 non-native species regarded as the most destructive. Non-native species that become invasive are considered the second greatest threat to worldwide wildlife and controlling their release into the wild is a key element of conserving our native wildlife.
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Comments
Honestly I don't see why you got John Cushnie to talk about this without any opposing points of view. He is ok on gardeners question time, but the majority of these people have little idea about the threats to the real natural world. Defra have their reasons for proposing these bans and we must not forget that invasive species are amongst the major causes of biodiversity loss globally and within the UK.
Philip - we are speaking to DEFRA at the moment - so there will be an official reply up soon. One of the reasons it is taking so long concerns the computers at DEFRA - they cannot stream audio from the internet - so please bear with us.
Sorry, don't follow your argument about John as an appropriate guest. He has been a contributor to the BBC on this subject for around forty years. In fact, when we spoke to him, he'd just picked up an award on behalf of GQT from the Gardeners Writers Guild.
http://www.gardenwriters.co.uk/awards/2007/2kpress03.html
My reading of the document is a ban on the sale of these plants. Now to a professional gardener, that is the same thing as banning growing them, as they would not be able to use them in their layouts.
I'm surprised not to see Buddlejia on the list, that's well established in the wild. Also, it can grow in cracks in masonary, and break it up, so it also damages houses etc. Similarly, the ring neck parakeets which have established themselves in SW London for example, although not sure if they do any damage, but if budgeregars are on the list, why not the parakeets?
I've only skimmed the document, but I've not seen mention of the cutting down of the existing oaks, many of which are "features" of parks, whereas there are eradication schemes for some of the other plants (and animals etc). I'm sure GQT were suggestiong cotoneasters only a few weeks ago.
I can see where DEFRA are coming from, and unusually have some sympathy for their point, but the inclusion of the oaks in particular seems drastic.
502'ed once
Why on earth is sycamore not on here? It's going to be a terrible spring with these springing up everywhere going by the number of very healthy-looking seeds this autumn. Where I live on the South coast, they are an ever increasing menace - taking over vast areas of woodland and railway embankments. When visiting Cornwall this autumn I saw them in growing numbers too - where there was no sign 30 years ago. And yet councils seem to treat them as welcome visitors. Why? No native wildlife relies on them, or lives in/on them.
In NZ (where my parents live) the council sends round an inspector on a regular basis to check on your garden & make sure you haven't got any "Noxious weeds" as they endearingly term them. This includes blackberries, a form of mistletoe called "Old Man's Beard" & various other introduced nasties which can take over in the favourable climate. If you've got these things, you either get rid of them, or the council comes round & sprays them (presumably at a fee, I can't remember exactly).
Can you imagine the bleating in this country if the government announced similar garden inspections???
Daffers (4)
I agree about Sycamore. I've been fighting these (and a poorly located native ash) from taking over parent's garden for some years now. My local council here are promoting some subspecies of sycamore as opposed to the oaks (maybe the Turkey, looks very similar to the pictures!) or indeed London Plane. The sycamore seeds blocked the newly installed guttering this autumn, and this is a four storey building.
Chris
Have just listened to your opening comments with Eddie
"Our" climate is changing
Who can say with certainty what will grow in any country in a few years
Maybe, within a few decades, Southern UK will only bear desert plants or maybe only Arctic Circle plants
One would have thought DEFRA might have those questions in mind rather than trying to stop that, which at the end-of-the-day, Mother Nature will likely decide for us...
Rupert, my comment was more in reference to the lack of balance re: John Cushnie. I don't have a particular dislike of him, but I though if you were going to talk on this subject using one person you might have used a someone who could see both sides of the argument... Thanks for the response about Defra, I was just a little concerned about the balance of the piece.
Also a quick response to Chris. Yes our climate is changing but if we just sat back and allowed non-native species to invade here and other countries the biodiversity loss would be catastrophic. By not acting to control and limit these species we will lose the very plants which will allow our countryside to adapt whatever the changes in weather. In the UK we already have quite a large number of Mediterranean species in areas such as Breckland and a number of more cold tolerant plants in the north. But then if you want a country covered in Himalayan balsam and Japanese knotweed you're welcome to it....
I'm a bit worried about having to start thinking of the holm oak as a non-native species: there are trees called holm oaks in Bristol that are older than Defra or me or than the houses near where they were growing when those houses were built. Are Defra talking about a different species of holm oak, or something? The word 'holm-oak' seems to have been in the English language since the sixteenth century, and it sounds like a pretty local name to me.
If we have to worry about trees being non-native, what *are* the native trees?
My first post here was before the DEFRA update, which I find very wishy-washy. I repeat that Buddlejia should be on the list for the same reasons as Japanese knotweed - however attractive the former is. Sycamore, as promoted by Daffers(4), ditto.
i-Piper (7),
I understand what you mean. But Japanese knotweed, for example, would not be here and able to exploit it's foothold in the first place were it not for it's introduction. In a pre-lapsarian landscape, with climate change, it would not be japanese knotweed in pole position in the UK!
Am a little surprised by Annasee (5), re Blackberries, as, since she must realise, they were considered a crop in the UK. Yes, they are rampant even in the UK. Perhaps that is a case of economic worth, so if, by chance, truffles established themsleves in NZ, would they be irradicated?
One problem of DEFRA's arguement is that it is adjacent to fascism. I jest not.
For example, there was a native Cowslip in parent's garden. One year, a neighbour had polyanthus in their garden, and as a result the Cowslip set seed.
The Cowslip died. But within a footprint of the Cowslip came up what I now call red cowslip.
Now, according to DEFRA's logic, I should eradicate this, as Primula are a very precocious specises. On the other hand, it's a rather attractive plant. To DEFRA's logic, to its limit, to avoid a future contamination, all Polyanthus should be banned from sale, on these grounds.
There are many other plants that I can think of that have escaped into the wild that are not in Rev. Keble-Martins's list of one thouand, four hundred and xty x native flowering plants. There is also the massive decline in various native fps, such as the orchids which I remember from childhood, but can no longer find.
Given what are now common or garden plants, how can DEFRA resist them. They pick on some which, I agree, are agressive non-native weeds. But they ignore the cross-breeding of native plants with plants that are "garden". I give you Spanish Bluebell as opposed to native bluebell as one example.
E&OE
Sorry, just to clear up confusion, in the post where I refer to 'Chris' (post number 8) I was in fact meaning to refer to i-piper.
I don't know why but the message board keeps braking down for me which alongside my lack of attentiveness causes major problems...
Rupert
One would have thought DEFRA might have been better occupied in the project detailed (paraphrased) below and in a similar project for the UK. Kew Gardens have the most wonderful seed collection. Haven't heard what future arrangements have been made for them...:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/11/071116-AP-arctic-seed.html
"Cooling Begins for "Doomsday" Seed Bank
Doug Mellgren in Oslo, Norway
Associated Press
November 15, 2007
Refrigeration units on Friday begin cooling a new "doomsday" vault dug into an already frigid Arctic mountainside to protect the world's seeds in case of a global catastrophe.
Norway blasted the Svalbard Global Seed Vault deep into the permafrost of a remote Arctic archipelago to protect as many as 4.5 million of the world's agricultural seeds from climate change, plant epidemics, natural disasters, and war. The vault is due to open on February 26.
The Svalbard Archipelago, 300 miles (480 kilometers) north of the mainland, was selected because of its remote location far from many threats, as well as for its cold climate and permafrost."
i-Piper (13),
I believe that RBG Kew is involved with this project, as well as running a large seed bank in the UK. However, these are only scratching the surface.
Various articles in New Scientist have mentioned how varietal seed banks have been found or lost in various circumstances. For example of types of pumpkin in one of the former soviet republics was "found" - one old "overseer" had collected them from all the farms he used to visit. "Found" by science and people who could look after it for prosperity quite by chance. Similarly a seed bank was lost during looting in Iraq.
OK, another posting by me...
It strikes me that Sycamore is a far worse invasive plant than the Oaks. (And native ash, come to that, from personal experience). Sycamore has that "helicopter" like seed, which means in a wind, the seed can disperse very effectively. Certainly to block our gutter, they can travel.
Oaks have heavy acorns, which will fall to the ground. Not one acorn found in our gutter. Now OK, grey squirrels (why are they not on the list?) will disperse the acorns, but given some of the evidence above (Daffers, 4)
Sycamore's dispersal is clearly more efficient.
Do oaks hybridise? Maybe, but I doubt to the same extent as primula - native primrose, cowslip, oxslip with polyanthus for example. I wonder how many "exterminations" of hybrid primulas have occurred when native versions have mixed with the polyanthus; I have good reason to suspect one in a site I know in particular.
Beech, north of the chalk isn't native, and will eventually suppress virtually all other tree species in a wood. Should we not undertake an immediate extermination programme?
xx
ed
There is no sin but ignorance.
-- Christopher Marlowe
I have no idea what half the plants in my garden are called, so how could I restrict growth of anything?
As to seeding in the wild, I regularly transplant the selfseeded trees and take them to my local garden centre for identification - native??, well British, but considering I live on the edge of a fen, there should be NO trees, but over the last 20 years my view is now blocked by a multitude of trees - mostly due to a failure of the drainage board to keep the dykes clear.
But the fallow land awaiting the developer in front of me is covered in dandelions, where a few years ago would have be a riot of many different wild flowers.
Ed I (16),
I thought that Beech tree were threatened due to the warming and drying of the climate, especially in summer. As a shallow rooted tree, when the top soil drys out they are in trouble.
It was used as a plot device in The Archers, where they were not replanting part of a woodland with Beech but some other species. May even have been Holm Oak - anyone know?
However, you raise a good point about how you define "native". Just because something grows in one part of the country, does not mean it is native to another part with completely different geological and climatic conditions.