Richards nurture their valuable hybrids in Herefordshire, but they also cultivate relationships thousands of miles away.

With barely any on-site glass, they work with two laboratories in the UK and one in Poland, who take tissue cultures of successful specimens and return ‘plantlets’ in sealed flasks and agar jelly.

“If only you had been here in July,” says Rod pointing to the office table.

“This table had 20,000 plantlets for shipping to our broker at Heathrow.”

Then there are the relationships with licensed growers, including two huge new nurseries in Israel which capitalise on a perfect climate to produce millions of cuttings year-round, some of the Richards’ varieties among them.

“A nursery which happens to grow our hardy fuchsias ships several million plants across a wide range of varieties around the world each week at the start the year – that’s how big the business is over there, it’s phenomenal.”

There’s also the more prosaic - but vital - relationship with the Animal and Plant Health Agency. It inspects their site under the EU Plant Passport regime, but also arrives on the morning of each shipment to ensure it meets the plant protection requirements of its destination.

“We have a very good connection,” says Rod, flicking through certificates for
exports around the world. “Some things can go under a general permit.

For others they specify that this plant must be certified by a UK lab as being free from X,Y, Z diseases. The APHA knows the requirements for each country and it’s our job to meet them.

“One of my biggest fears is that moving plants around will become more difficult in the future.”

The Brexit effect?

For now the requirements are rigorous, especially for Australia and those mega nurseries in Israel. But the Richards’ shipment records show they are clearly achievable, and that should provide comfort as UK Horticulture looks to fresh post-Brexit markets.

In that respect, the New World Plants model might prove a particularly hardy variety.

“In terms of the business I don’t see it changing much,” Rod says.

“I was very pro-Brexit. I don’t like a lot of the red tape. There are going to
be some implications. Are we still going to have European Plant Breeders’ Rights or will we go back to how it was set up originally – one for the UK, one for this country, one for that?

“There might also be currency impacts. But overall? Because of that hunger, the desire for new plants, people are still going to be interested. I’m the one that’s going around the world, they’re not.

“Without being complacent, why should it be any different than the people we are already dealing with in Australia, New Zealand and the USA? Brexit doesn’t even enter into it.”

Blueprint or not, the Richards’ business certainly offers a perspective for the thousands of customers who flock to garden centres every Sunday.

“If you look at a plant on sale you haven’t a clue about the story behind it,” says Rod.

“Someone could have been evaluating it for years, they’ve had to enter in legal agreements with the breeder, they’ve had to research it, get it into tissue culture, test it for diseases, deal with the rights and regulations and get it produced en masse so it’s available for the public.

“It’s not a business where you can grasp the nettle overnight, you have to have passion and patience,” Rod concludes. ■

NewWorld Plants offers bare roots plants, plugs in various sizes, tissue culture and unrooted cuttings, as well as plant development and export opportunities.

Find out more at

www.new-worldplants.com