Jury hears seeds failed at court

A Shropshire firm supplied seeds with a 100 per cent guarantee they would grow but they did not, a court has heard.

A jury at Shrewsbury Crown Court heard yesterday that some of the company’s seeds were even planted outside the courthouse in which they were sitting as part of public works carried out by Shropshire County Council - but they were among those which failed to grow and blossom.

The suppliers, Encapsulated Wildflower Seeds R&D Ltd, based at Shrewsbury Business Park, denies four charges under the Trades Description Act.  

Two of the charges concern applying a false trade description and two are concerned with supplying goods to which a false trade description was applied.

Mr Julian Shaw, prosecuting, told the hearing that the defendant company used a process called encapsulation which it was claimed made its seeds “easy to sow, guaranteed to grow”.

He said the company not only asserted that its product promised 100 per cent efficacy but that efficacy was guaranteed by Lloyds of London for up to £500,000.

However, Mr Shaw said that the company contracted to market and sell the seeds on behalf of Encapsulated began to receive complaints .

One of the dissatisfied clients was Shropshire County Council which had bought a batch to plant around the Shrewsbury Crown Court building, the jury heard.

Mr Shaw said that Trading Standards officers sent a sample of the seeds to the Institute for Agricultural Botany and it also failed to make them grow under laboratory conditions.

When it was discovered that the expert had not followed the company’s directions he tried again, this time following the instructions scrupulously, but again they failed to grow, the jury was told.

He said the defendant company itself sent two test batches to a horticultural and botanical expert in Scotland and while he managed to get one to grow the other, which was the subject of one of the charges, did not.

The trial continues.

By Simon Hardy