Plant Spec Check Service

The Client - The Plant Spec Check Service is designed for Garden Designers, Architects, Landscape Architects and anyone specifying plants for projects in the UK, especially for larger scale and public projects. 

 

The Issue - A great many plants are specified in projects each year that are not available for multiple reasons and are ultimately substituted at both a financial and reputational cost to the project.  It could be that a particular plant is scarcely grown in the UK and Europe, or the size and root condition given does not suit the plant's growth habit or production availability.  Sometimes, a quantity requested in excess of world availability, or would require purchasing from multiple growers at increased costs.  At other times, changes to plant movement laws and biosecurity regulations mean that a plant available one month, simply isn't the following.  All of these and other factors lead to the majority of projects designed in the UK, particularly larger scale projects, ending up with plants being substituted at point of installation and those changes compromise the original design intention.

 

The Aim - The Plant Spec Check Service is designed to review plant schedules/lists for clients before they are sent to nurseries for costing and before they are given to clients raising expectations.  In doing this, many of the potential issues can be resolved so that projects can be installed as close to original spec as possible, with minimal revisions and additional work for you or your team and maximum client satisfaction. 

 

The Service - You send us your plant schedule and some key information including when and where the project will be installed and we will review your lists and make comment and recommendations for change where required.  We can comment on availability where it is a concern, seasonal availability or appropriateness of pot size where specification requires a particular root condition.  We will try to offer substitutes for plants that are not available or not suitable for particular projects.  We will comment on plants not available in the UK under Plant Health rules or movement bans within the UK, offering substitutes where possible.  We can comment on plants available in Peat Free Compost, or with recycled and recyclable pots.  We are happy to tailor the service to meet your individual needs.

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The Knowledge - This service can be offered due to our detailed and extensive hardy plant knowledge as well as over 20 years of experience working with UK and European nursery production, with particular knowledge on availability (and seasonal changes), plant health rules and plant production/growth habits.  As well as this, we keep abreast of changes to the law including, National Plant Specification, Schedule 9 species and the Plant Biosecurity strategy for Great Britain (2023 to 2028), as well as regular updates from Defra.

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How it works - We are happy to offer the service in a number of different formats with clear pricing that can be factored into your project costs;

• Ad hoc, pay-as-you-go service, charged depending on the number of plant lines to be checked. 

• Monthly retainer with a set maximum number of schedules to review.

• Individually bespoked service with options to schedule one-to-one zoom discussions with designer/architect/specifier.

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Whether you are a one-man-band, or multi-site international design firm, we would be delighted to hear from you to discuss your needs.  Just complete the form below to start the process