What is National Plant Health Week?
National Plant Health Week is a week every year which focuses on raising public awareness of how to keep our plants healthy. This year, the focus is on celebrating the importance of being a good plant health citizen, appreciating the value plants provide to our society.
Running from 5th to 12th May 2025, National Plant Health Week incorporates the United Nations International Day of Plant Health on May 12th.
The week is a collaboration of over 30 UK based organisations committed to the protection of our trees and plants. This partnership helps to safeguard the health of our nation’s plants, and it reinforces the benefits they provide for the environment, society and the economy.
National Plant Health Week is an interesting and fun way for all of us to come together to celebrate the role plants play in our lives and in the environment, and learn more about what we can do to protect plants and trees.
Why Is National Plant Heath Week Important?
Our plants and trees are increasingly vulnerable to disease and pests. This is due to the globalisation of trade and travel, climate change, and our behaviour too. Bringing plants back from holidays abroad or buying from unlicensed suppliers who are illegally important plants, are two of the key ways that human behaviour is putting the health of our plants and trees at risk.
As the climate changes, some pests and diseases which previously could not establish themselves in the UK are now able to thrive. The changing climate is altering ecosystems and reducing biodiversity, which can enable pests to thrive as their natural predators are diminished.
Non-native diseases and pests can devastate populations of plants and insects in the UK, with potentially wide reaching affects on ecosystems. Economically too, it is much more cost effective to protect the UK from outbreaks of pests and disease than dealing with the consequences. Most people recognise that it is important to protect the health of our plants.
Read the Plant Biosecurity Strategy for the UK here.
Plants are important!
Plants are life! They make 98% of the oxygen we breathe and 80% of the food we eat.
Whether it is the smallest dandelion growing through a crack in a city pavement, or a large old oak tree coming into full leaf and flower, such as the oak trees in my rural Welsh garden, plants are important.
That dandelion will provide forage for insects and seed for birds such as finches or small rodents, and create a tiny ecosystem of insects, microbes and fungi on the plant and in the soil beneath. On a grander scale, oak trees support more wildlife than any other species of tree in the UK. This includes hundreds of different insect species, birds, bats, squirrels, fungi and lichen. Over 2,300 species are supported by oak trees.
Why are plants important?
Some of the ways that plants are important to us include:
Plants feed us: 80% of the food we eat comes from plants. Food security relies on safeguarding the health of plants, because it is estimated that between 20-40% of global food production is lost annually due to pests and diseases.
This isn’t just on market garden or farm scale. Allotments and community growing spaces produce approximately 116 million kilos of produce in the UK, equivalent to feeding around 800,000 people.
“Plants are the source of the air we breathe and most of the food we eat, yet we often do not pay enough attention to keeping them healthy. This can have devastating results. FAO estimates that up to 40 percent of food crops are lost to plant pests and diseases annually.”
Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.
Wellbeing: Seeing and spending time amongst plants can help improve our mental health and well being. They can reduce anxiety, lower blood pressure and even help us recover from illness quicker. Even caring for a plant on a windowsill can boost well being. Growing plants in a garden or allotment, or walking in nature, also helps improve our physical well being too.
Fighting Climate Change and Pollution: Trees help to prevent flooding, reduce city temperatures, and help to keep soil nutrient rich. Around 4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide is stored in UK forests alone. Plants also help reduce air pollution, removing around 1.3 billion air pollutants in the UK annually.
Our economy: It is estimated that 27 million British people are involved in gardening in some way, which is around 40% of the population. We have been called a “Nation of Gardeners” and spending time visiting gardens, in our own or community gardens, or pottering around garden centres is certainly an activity enjoyed by many.
Get Involved!
Plant Health Action – become a good plant health citizen!
Become an ambassador for biosecurity, by helping to keep the UK free from harmful diseases and pests. There are many ways that we can have a positive impact on plant health, helping to ensure that plants and trees in our communities thrive.
Look out for signs of pests and diseases. Free resources are available online to help you identify pests and diseases, and also report any sitings. This information helps to support important tree and plant health monitoring work, contributes to scientific research and helps to protect our environments.
Useful resources:
Citizen Science
Observatree
iNaturalist plant health project
TreeAlert
Take part in a local plant health walk
This year, a series of Plant Health Week walks have been organised, to help get people out in their local area and learn more about the plants and trees in their location. The walks will include how to spot pests and diseases, and how to report any findings. There’s more information and how to sign up for a walk here.
Plant Health Week Key Points
Don’t Risk It! Don’t bring plant material including seeds, plants, fruit, cuttings or trees from trips abroad. This can introduce pests and diseases to the UK. Just because you can’t see a problem on the plant material doesn’t mean it is not there.
There’s more information about this from the RHS here.
Buy plants and trees responsibly. Always source your plants from a reputable supplier, preferably one with biosecurity and Plant Healthy certification. Check plants in garden centres and nurseries before buying to ensure that they are in good condition and free from pests and diseases.
When buying online use a UK based supplier and always check that the plants are coming from the UK.
Keep It Clean. Help to prevent the spread of disease in parkland, woods and other wild spaces by cleaning boots, pushchairs, bikes and wheelchairs before visiting, and also afterwards.
To learn more, watch the You Tube video Keep It Clean here.
Be Plant Wise. Avoid buying invasive species which can spread out of your garden and into the wider environment. There’s more information about which plants to avoid, alternatives to choose instead and other helpful guides on NonNativeSpecies.org.
Become Plant Healthy Certified. If you are a horticulture professional trading in plants, see whether your organisation can become Plant Healthy certified.
Get the whole family involved learning fascinating plant health facts with fun activities with Izzy the Inspector. There’s a downloadable activity book too, available in English and Cymraeg.
Watch my Instagram reel to find out more
Watch Pippa Greenwood’s video: Buying Responsibly with Pippa Greenwood
This blog post is a paid partnership with the Welsh Government and in collaboration with Climate Cymru and Gweithredu ar Hinsawdd Cymru / Climate Action Wales to support National Plant Health Week. It forms part of a collaboration with me (Stephanie Hafferty) to promote plant health in the UK, something that as a gardener, homesteader and garden writer/teacher is hugely important to me.
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