Ash tree sentenced to death

So i bought a native tree collection over winter whilst it was bare root season. It included an ash tree which i planted the day after i recieved it. Cut a long story short i have recieved a letter from some enviroment agency saying they want to know where i planted it so they can come and destroy it, as although it is a native tree , the garden centre had imported it from abroad and that another tree/or trees from the same batch have been found to have some sort of mould growing on the roots
Seeing as i bought a "native" tree collection the least i would have expected is that they were grown in UK based nurseries. When i spoke to the garden centre there attitude was - this is nothing to do with us DEFRA OR FEDRA will contact you soon its all there doing....Although they did say they will compensate me for the loss...no apology. There is a listed tree not far from where i planted the ash wonder if they will notice that when they come to destroy the ash

Not impressed at all not even sure if i should use the garden centre again???

 

Blimey, thats a worry Hydrogen. Hope it doesn't spread.

They do sound like they don't care, thats the difference between a Garden Centre & a Nursery.

 

I looked into this a while ago. I'm afraid it is legal to sell a tree as 'native' even if it was grown abroad. It just has to be a species that is widely accepted to be native.

Has the garden centre at least offered you a refund? They have to by law, because they've sold you something which has been found to be unfit for its intended purpose.

Personally I'd let DEFRA do what they have to do, and then never do business with that supplier ever again.

Looking at the flip side, the garden centre will suffer badly from this. DEFRA will be swarming over them like flies now, and apart from the inconvenience and loss of business while it all gets sorted, if the garden centre fail to cover their own back with watertight paperwork, they'll be heavily penalised. They will be in damage limitation mode, so no apologies will happen because an apology can be seen as an admission of guilt. The staff will likely have been instructed not to discuss it at all until the matter is resolved. I know that doesn't excuse lack of common courtesy, but its the way it is these days and it doesn't necessarily mean they have no respect for their customers.

 

Forgot about this thread

What has happened is, the people from DEFRA i think it was, came out. A lady with a rucksack so im told. My friend showed her where i had planted the trees, she picked out the tree in question and pulled it up and bagged it and took it with her. She told my friend that it was infected too

I have been in touch with the nurserie twice now about the matter but they just put the nicest lady you have ever spoke too in your entire life on the phone who tells you so politely that they will be in touch by writing when DEFRA have finished there bla bla bla

For the sake of one little ash tree cant be bothered getting worked up over it if they get in touch i wont say no to a replacement though, mite try for a yew tho instead. I wont hold my breath.

Dont think will use them again tho.

 

If it was infected I think you have the right to know exactly what it was infected with, will it still be in the soil where the tree was and will it affect any of the surrounding trees. Particularly any others in the genus Oleaceae.

 

How did they know that you had bought the tree from the nursery? I don't imagine that most sales could be traced at all ... its not like you have to fill out forms in triplicate in order to buy a tree ...

 

I dont know Kristen i did not ask. All i know is i planted a tree and someone has dug it up and took it away lol

 

If you just walked in and bought some plants (i.e. not mail order) it would worry me that they knew who you were!

 

they were by mail order

And if they were not, it would worry me more! :WINK1:

 

all the letters have been going to the delivery address near the field, not to me, so thats why im a little sketchy about the details

 

omg never thought of that

 

I'd like to think that you would have to be a terrorist for that to happen ... "like to think" being the operative phrase of course!

 

Sorry ... flaw in my argument ... "Suspected terrorist" ... nowadays that is invoked for anyone & everyone and anything & everything of course :(

 

But they usually ask if the credit card bill is sent to the same address.

 

I have the letter here now, it does not say what the disease is it just says that it results in ash die back. It was FERA (food and enviroment agency) That came out to get rid of it not DEFRA if there is such a thing haha

At the bottom of the letter it says they felt they should forewarn me of the problem. Well thanks a bunch