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I can't remember much about this story, I think maybe the 1980s in the UK when I read it.

The memory:
A struggling colony trying to establish on a planet, a random assortment of hostile creatures but mankind was dealing ok with them.
There was rationing but rudimentary agriculture had began, however the rules (maybe from a controlling computer) didn't allow any useful vegetables to be grown, only flowers (decorative flowers only, no edible flowers).

Periodically new batches of colonists would appear, having been vat grown on the colony ship ...the original colonists called the newcomers "Ship Born" I think (but I'm not certain) that planet born colonists were subject to mutation.

I've been through the guidance and struggled to come up with anything else.

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  • There are edible flowers :-) You could grow those and eat them.
    – Valorum
    Commented Jul 27 at 6:20
  • 1
    Do you remember if this was a short story, or was it of novel length?
    – Clara Díaz Sanchez
    Commented Jul 27 at 9:33
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    It was a longish book....I've just remembered that they were occasionally getting new people out of the colony ship and they called them "shipborn"
    – Danny Mc G
    Commented Jul 27 at 16:33
  • On the ISFDB I found (Nothing But) Flowers, described as short fiction by author Nick Mamatas. I have yet to find any details about the story.
    – Judith Jones
    Commented Jul 31 at 22:17
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    I found a copy in an anthology named Bewere The Night on the Internet Archive, It is not what you are looking for but a werewolf tale set on earth.
    – Judith Jones
    Commented Jul 31 at 22:39

1 Answer 1

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0

Possibly "Message from Mars" by Clifford D Simak.

Short description from Wikipedia: Clifford D. Simak bibliography

Mars sends lily seeds to Earth. Earthmen risk death to reach Mars and find only flowers and robot bugs. Who sent the message?

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