Defra has backed a new £3 million National Centre for Environmental Horticulture Plant Health, bringing the Royal Horticultural Society and the Animal and Plant Health Agency together to study the pests and diseases putting UK gardens under growing pressure. For Eco Current readers, the value is clear. Healthier gardens mean stronger green spaces, better resilience in a warming climate and faster answers when new threats start to spread. The centre will operate virtually, with staff working across APHA and RHS sites around the country.

The scale of what is at stake is large. Defra said the work is designed to protect the UK’s 23 million gardens and support an environmental horticulture trade that, according to Horticultural Trades Association data cited in the announcement, contributes £38 billion to UK GDP and supports 722,000 jobs. That makes plant health more than a specialist issue. It sits alongside employment, public wellbeing and the quality of the green spaces people rely on every day.

The new centre’s brief is practical rather than abstract. The RHS and APHA will work with industry to identify the threats with the biggest potential impact, research solutions and management practices, and then share the findings with the people most likely to use them. That matters because plant health problems do not stay neatly contained. A virtual centre spread across existing sites should help connect research with what is actually happening in nurseries, supply chains and home gardens.

Some of the risks are already familiar. Defra highlighted Bemisia tabaci, an insect that can spread several damaging plant diseases, alongside Phytophthora species, a group of destructive water moulds that the RHS says rank among its most reported plant health problems each year. Rose Rosette virus was also named as a concern. For gardeners, these are not distant technical terms. They can mean weakened plants, root damage, failed flowering and, in some cases, the loss of much-loved favourites.

The public role is built into the plan. The RHS said it will use its 600,000 members to raise awareness of biosecurity and help track which problems matter most, both for commercial growers and for people gardening at home. That reach could prove useful quickly. In 2025, enquiries to RHS Gardening Advice showed honey fungus and phytophthora root rots were among the most common problems seen in gardens, giving the new centre a stronger picture of what households are already dealing with and where guidance could make an immediate difference.

Defra’s Chief Plant Health Officer, Professor Nicola Spence, said climate change and globalisation are increasing both the range and diversity of threats to UK plants. APHA chief executive Richard Lewis said the agency’s work with Defra and the RHS remains central to protecting borders from new and existing risks, while RHS science director Professor Alistair Griffiths said stronger collaboration can pair research with real-world horticultural knowledge. The announcement came during Plant Health Week, held from 11 to 17 May, and fits within the Plant Biosecurity Strategy for Great Britain 2023 to 2028. Defra also linked the investment to wider economic growth through research and technology. It will not remove every risk overnight, but it gives the UK a more organised way to spot problems early, test responses and help gardens stay healthy in a changing climate.