Everyday plants to disappear?

I was sat in bed the other night checking twitter, as you do, and noticed a tweet from the Telegraph.  Normally I may have just quickly scanned and then moved onto the next, but the headline caught my eye...

"European Commission proposal 'will see plants disappear from garden centres'"

Here is the link to the article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/10311033/European-Commission-proposal-will-see-plants-disappear-from-garden-centres.html

What the article is basically saying, is that the European Commission have drafted legislation to have all plants registered, so that us, the consumers, are not sold fake or inferior plants.   

Now this is possibly a good idea, but if you look into it deeper, it could cause problems, and as the headline suggests, see many of our common plants, for just one example, Lavendar Hidcote, just disappear.

In the picture below of pots in my garden, in the future the lavendar could disappear, where as the dianthus and cineraria would be ok as these are botanical names.

This is because of our estimated 50000 ornamental plant varieties, only about 2000 actually have a detailed botanical description, as the European Commission are suggesting there needs to be.  There could be arguments for this.  When I was looking for examples of problems using common names I came across the following on the RHS website.  What we call the bluebell in England is called the wild hyacinth in Scotland and to them a bluebell is something completely different, so there could be some confusion.  It does however have a botanical name, which is Hyacinthoides non-scripta and is universal.  Ok, so register all the plants, this would no doubt take time, but could be done.

Again, there is a stumbling block.  To have the plants registered, hiring an expert to do it, would cost someone approximately £500 to fill in detailed forms.  Who would pay this, plant breeders?  Garden centres?  The Government?  Its not going to happen.

That then, in theory, means that plants not registered, and therefore would not be allowed to be sold by garden centres or the usual high street diy stores because anyone who sells them could be fined, which means they could eventually disappear.  Everyday plants that we know and love, may no longer be available.

Obviously the European Commission are not trying to ban these plants, but if there is this massive administrative hurdle, then that is basically what could happen.  It does state in the Telegraph's article that "The Government confirmed it was trying to block any proposals which would require the laborious descriptions."

This is obviously a proposal and shows the worst case scenario, but it is draft legislation and shows what could happen if allowed to go through.  There is however, other ways.  For example, there is a database of common names for plants.  This does go along way, but as I said above, there would still possibly be confusion in other countries.

There are other consequences of losing plants like this.  The lavendar, for example, is one of the most loved plants by bees.  It has been in the news recently about the decline in bee numbers.  Any loss of some plants could further impact.  The issue isn't just about losing these plants but the whole impact.

Whatever the outcome, I for one, would not want to lose any of these plants.  Probably most plants in my garden are would not be registered.  Plants that I intend to buy for my garden, may not be available in the future...

Lets see what happens, I will be keeping a close eye on this one.

Sources I referred to for this blog and found very interesting are the ones mentioned above.  Here they are again.

The Telegraph's article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/10311033/European-Commission-proposal-will-see-plants-disappear-from-garden-centres.html

The RHS's website, specifically, information on the naming of plants and botanical names:
http://apps.rhs.org.uk/rhsplantfinder/plantnaming/index.asp