Congratulations to Paul Roman and the rest of the organization team at the revamped Southern Growers Exhibition held today at Roundstone Nursery. By my reckoning, it was a great success, with many more exhibitors and vastly increased numbers of visitors. For me, in recent years, this events only merited attendance because it was local – this time, there were some really useful contacts to be made and renewed, which is the mark of a truly useful event.

The Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) is set to announce that, from January 2010, the Gazette and most other publications will be available in electronic format only and will be free of charge. This will be a boon to those of us who have found purchasing a subscription to the paper format of the Gazette to be difficult, as obtaining EU publications is limited to only two resellers in the UK who are not always as helpful as they might be (I’ve been awaiting an email response from TSO for, oh, about six months now).

The Gazette is the official record of all applications and grants of Community PVR. Only the Gazette acts as the official record – the online database at the CPVO website carries disclaimers to state that it would not be admissable as evidence and should not be regarded, therefore, as entirely accurate.

The only publication that will continue to be available in paper format will be the annual report. This, and most other publications, have been available in electronic format for some time. Check the EU Bookshop and enter "Community Plant Variety Office" as search term.

From January, the Gazette will be available from www.cpvo.europa.eu as PDF format documents.

Workers of Royal Mail (the British postal service) will commence industrial action on Thursday 22 October, initially for 48 hours. If you wish to contact us, we recommend using email, phone or Skype. For our contact details, click here.

UPDATE: further strikes are planned for 72 hours from Thursday 29 October.

UPDATE: new strikes announced for 6 and 9 November. – NOW CALLED OFF (hurrah!)

Graham will be at the Four Oaks Show in Cheshire on Tuesday 8th and Wednesday 9th September. Email now if you would like to arrange a meeting there.

The BBC is reporting that scientists have agreed on a system for DNA barcodes for plants. They see applications in monitoring the trade in CITES-protected plants and also in forensics.

I wonder if it might have applications in protecting against the illegal trade in PVR- or patent-protected plants, particularly if it was married with some sort of simple hand-held equipment which allowed people with limited training (perhaps customs officials) to sample consignments of plant material. But I also wonder how much information can be contained in the limited fragments of DNA that they are using (it might be good enough to identify plants at species level, but perhaps not good enough to identify individual varieties – Alstroemeria, for example, are notoriously similar in terms of DNA when varieties are compared) and also how long it will take to compile a comprehensive DNA database (the current Plant Finder lists over 75,000 varieties of plant available to purchase in the UK).

Both CIOPORA and the CPVO have been looking into the issue of DNA fingerprinting for protected plants – I believe that the CPVO is conducting a pilot project with the genus Rosa. Perhaps we will see more developments on this in the future.

One of the best events in the European horticultural calendar is coming round again – Plantarium.

Graham will be at Plantarium on Wednesday 26 and Thursday 27 August. If you want to arrange a meeting there, please contact us.