The following words shall, for purposes of this chapter, be defined as follows:

(1) “Agent” — any person who performs services for another person under an express or implied agreement. A person may be an agent without receiving compensation for services.

(2) “Agriculture” — the production of plants and animals useful to man, including all forms of farm products and farm production.

(3) “Broker” — any person who negotiates the purchase or sale of any material. A broker may or may not handle either the material which is involved or the proceeds of a sale.

(4) “Certificate” — a document authorized or prepared by an authorized federal or state regulatory official that affirms, declares, or verifies that a plant or other regulated article meets phytosanitary (quarantine), nursery inspection, pest freedom, plant registration or certification, or other legal requirements. Such documents are known by their purpose of issuance:

(5) “Certification” — the act by the Department of affirming, declaring, or verifying compliance with phytosanitary (quarantine), nursery inspection, pest freedom, plant registration or certification, or any other set of legal requirements.

(6) “Chain store” — any business with 1 or more retail outlets that sells plants, plant material or nursery stock, and that are owned by a common parent business entity.

(7) “Commission merchant” — any person, who receives on consignment or solicits any material from a licensee, producer or his or her agent or accepts material in trust for purposes of sale and sells or resells any material on commission or for a fee.

(8) “Consignee” — any person to whom any plant, nursery stock, horticultural product, etc. is shipped for handling, sale, resale, or other purpose.

(9) “Consignor” — any person who ships or delivers to a consignee any plant, nursery stock, horticultural product, etc. for handling, planting, sale, resale, or any other purpose.

(10) “Dangerously injurious plant pest” — a plant pest that constitutes a significant threat to the agricultural, forest or horticultural interests of this State, or the State’s general environmental quality.

(11) “Dealer” — any person who obtains title to, or possession, control, or delivery of, any plant, plant material or nursery stock, from a producer for the purpose of resale.

(12) “Department” — the State of Delaware Department of Agriculture and includes, but is not limited to, its officers, inspectors, employees, agents or representatives.

(13) “Florist(s)” — includes, but is not limited to, a person(s) or business(es) engaged in the production or sale, wholesale or retail of plants, plant materials or nursery stock for temporary, semi-permanent, seasonal or permanent, indoor or outdoor use.

(14) “Garden Center” — includes, but is not limited to, a business establishment engaged in the year round, retail sale of plants, plant material or nursery stock from a specific, permanent sales location.

(15) “Greenhouse” — includes, but is not limited to, an establishment or business engaged in the production of plants, plant material or nursery stock within a climate controlled structure, for distribution beyond on-site or personal use.

(16) “Grower” — includes but is not limited to, any person who raises, grows or propagates, for profit or other reasons, outdoors or indoors, any horticultural product, nursery stock, or plant.

(17) “Horticultural product” — those products stated in Group 18 of the United States Department of Labor Standard Industrial Classification Manual which are grown under cover or outdoors, including bulbs, flowers, shrubbery, florist greens, fruit stock, floral products, nursery stock, ornamental plants, potted plants, roses, seed, Christmas trees, fruits, food crops grown in greenhouses, vegetables, and horticultural specialties not otherwise specified.

(18) “Hold order” — an order or notice written by the Department to the owner(s) or person(s) in charge or in possession of a premises, plant, conveyance or article infested or infected with or exposed to infestation or infection of dangerously injurious plant pest(s), making it unlawful to move the aforementioned article(s) unless treated in accordance with the Department’s prescribed procedures.

(19) “Infected” — a plant that has been determined by the Department to be contaminated with an infectious, transmissible or contagious pest or so exposed to the aforementioned that contamination can reasonably be expected to exist. This includes disease conditions, regardless of their mode of transmission or any disorder of plants which manifest symptoms which, after investigation are determined by a federal or state pest prevention agency, to be characteristic of an infectious, transmissible, or contagious disease.

(20) “Infested” — a plant that has been determined by the Department to be contaminated by a dangerously injurious plant pest, or so exposed to the aforementioned that contamination can reasonably be expected to exist.

(21) “Landscaper(s)” — includes but is not limited to, any person(s) who keeps at a premises, or procures for transplantation, nursery stock for installation on the property of another person.

(22) “Mail-order merchant(s)” — includes but is not limited to, any person, dealer, or producer who sells or markets, wholesale or retail, any of its orders or business by drop shipment, catalog, telemarketing, telephone, mail-order or other indirect means.

(23) “Mark” — the Department shall affix, for purposes of identification or separation, a conspicuous official indicator to, on, around, or near, plants or plant material, known or suspected to be, infected or infested with a dangerously injurious plant pest. This includes, but is not limited to, paint, markers, tags, seals, stickers, tape, signs or placards.

(24) “Move” — to ship, offer for shipment, receive for transport, carry or, in any manner whatsoever, convey or relocate a regulated plant, plant material or nursery stock, from one place to another.

(25) “Nursery” — any location where nursery stock is grown, propagated, stored, or sold; or any location from which nursery stock is distributed direct to a customer. (See “Sales location”)

(26) “Nursery industry license” — a document issued by the Department authorizing a person(s) to engage in a nursery or nursery related business at a particular location under a specified business name.

(27) “Nursery stock” — any plant for planting, propagation, or ornamentation, including, but not limited to:

a. All plants, trees, shrubs, vines, perennials grafts, cuttings and buds that may be sold for propagation, whether cultivated or wild, and all viable parts of these plants.

b. Any other plant or plant part, including cut Christmas trees or any non-hardy plant or plant part, including but not limited to, annuals, bedding plants and vegetable plants.

(28) “Owner(s)” — includes, but is not limited to, the person, persons, family, group, firm, association, business, company, incorporated entity or organization with the legal right of possession, proprietorship of, or responsibility for the property or place where any of the regulated articles as defined in this chapter are to be found, or person(s) who is in possession of, in proprietorship of, or has responsibility for the regulated articles.

(29) “Person(s)” — includes, but is not limited to, individual, family, firm, association, group, business, company, incorporated entity or organization.

(30) “Pre-clearance” — an agreement between quarantine officials of exporting and importing states to pass plants, plant material, etc., through quarantine by allowing the exporting state to inspect the plants pre-shipment, rather than the importing state inspecting the shipment upon arrival.

(31) “Pest” — includes any biotic agent (any living agent capable of reproducing itself) that is known to cause damage or harm to agriculture or the environment.

(32) “Plant” — includes, but is not limited to, any part of a plant, tree, aquatic plant, plant material, shrub, vine, fruit, rhizome, vegetable, seed, bulb, stolon, tuber, corm, pip, cutting, scion, bud, graft, or fruit pit, including:

a. Agricultural commodities:

b. Nursery stock.

c. Non-cultivated or feral plants, gathered from the environment.

d. Plants produced by tissue culture, cloning or from stem cell cultures or other prepared media culture.

(33) “Plant pest” — includes, but is not limited to, any pest of plants, agricultural commodities, horticultural products, nursery stock, or non-cultivated plants. This includes, but is not limited to, insects, snails, nematodes, fungi, viruses, bacterium, microorganisms, mycoplasma like organisms, weeds, plants or parasitic higher plants.

(34) “Producer” — includes, but is not limited to, any person who raises, grows or propagates, for profit or other reasons, outdoors or indoors, any horticultural product, nursery stock, or plant.

(35) “Quarantine” — a legal instrument duly imposed or enacted by the Department as a means for mitigating pest risk. These actions include, but are not limited to, confinement or restriction of entry, movement, shipment or transportation of plants known or suspected to be infected or infested with some dangerously injurious plant pests.

(36) “Roadside market” — includes, but is not limited to a business engaged in the retail sale of plants, plant material or nursery stock on a seasonal basis and which may operate from a specific sales location or multiple mobile locations.

(37) “Registration” — the official recording of a growing location, person, plant, sales location or any other thing or place as one that has met specified requirements and therefore eligible for a particular activity, operation or purpose.

(38) “Sales location” — every location from which nursery stock is delivered directly to a customer.

(39) “Secretary” — the Secretary of the State of Delaware Department of Agriculture or his or her designee.

(40) “Sell” — includes offer for sale, expose for sale, possess for sale, exchange, barter or trade.

(41) “Shipment” — any article or thing which is, may be, or has been transported or conveyed from one place to another.

65 Del. Laws, c. 491, § 1; 68 Del. Laws, c. 329, §§ 1, 2; 70 Del. Laws, c. 332, § 1.