Back in Brazil

Inglezinho

I'm back in Brazil now, but I can you assure all my comments relate to my English garden. 
I managed to get 1,000 corms of Cyclamen coum to plant in the dry shade round the trees and they flowered extremely well. They were supposed to be white but there were quite a few purple ones.
I smuggled the Crinum bulbs back with me, but they didn't flower. I discovered they are seasonal bog plants, so they were definitely underwatered.
I'm getting better at collecting seeds and some do very well in UK. I get masses of Cosmos suphureus from Brazil and sow them at the end of May. Great show in September. Less joy with Madagascar periwinkle ( Catharanthus)  though. They need a longer growing season.
Best wishes to you all.

Helix

Please do be careful about taking plants from one country to another.  It is quite easy to transfer pests and diseases along with them, and the country you take them to has no defence.  Even seeds can have viruses that will transfer, and you are only allowed to bring in commercial seed packets as they have their phytosanitary certificate.

As an example, the box moth currently devastating europe and destroying large swathes of landscape is thought to have started by imports of plants from china that had some eggs in with them. 

It is also illegal to bring in bulbs and corms from outside the EU, plus many other things.  See here

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/531618/Bringing_fruit__veg_and_plants_into_the_UK_leaflet.pdf

It may sound as if I’m being a bit prissy, but so many plant diseases that are getting out of control are because they have been transferred from one country to another. 

Dovefromabove

My thoughts too @Helix ... really disappointed that the poster thought it was ok and to then post about it 😦

Hampshire_Hog

@Helix it's not a case of @Inglezinho being careful. It is illegal to import any plant material into the UK without the proper authority and in doing so they are breaking the law.
It's this type of selfish act that puts all our plants and habitats in danger from all manner of pest's and diseases.

Helix

I was trying to be polite.....

although also pointed out that it’s illegal - which she obviously knows as she used the word ‘smuggled’.

And as well as pests and diseases there’s also the issue of things escaping into the wild - like american skunk cabbage which is now banned since it escaped gardens and started clogging up waterways.

Dovefromabove

Think it's a 'he'. 

Helix

If I’m not sure I often write ‘she’ now rather than defaulting to he or he/she...my teeny, tiny stand for feminism....

Dovefromabove

Ah! 

Pete.8

The whole labeling situation is a mess.
I was reading through RHS Garden (Dec 2018 issue) where they cite an example of a plant that starts life as a cutting in Uganda, then gets rooted in the Netherlands then ends up in a UK nursery.
So long as the plant spends 'considerable time' (a term that is not defined) in the UK then the plant can be labelled 'Sourced from a British Nursery'.

If the government (under the direction of the EU presumably) doesn't take it seriously, they can hardly expect the public to do so.

Helix

But if the cutting has been via a professional plant nursery that has its plant health certification then that at least gives some confidence that it’s free from bugs if not every disease?  Rather different from popping a cutting in your toiletries bag and bringing it home...