Peony Chameleons - problem
Paul T. (Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:32:22 PDT)

At 09:23 AM 18/03/2008, you wrote:

Jim,

I'll buy into this slightly.... as a non-paeony officionado (I very
basically dabble, but I am no expert)..... you're saying that the
home gardener should be expecting that the sellers of a plant will
definitely have the correct "format" for the names and that the
cultivar name isn't enough? Given that so many suppliers can barely
get the right thing under the right name isn't that a bit like
expecting the cat to look after the mouse? And I do have to make a
quick point out re the different spelling of the cultivar being
enough to differentiate...... I guess that means that the Americans
all grow a different genus to the rest of the world given that you
all grow Peonies while the rest of the world used to grow Paeonies
(until the American "ease" of spelling was required to be taken up,
as many Americans wouldn't accept the correct spelling I assume
because it was too hard to remember?). I'm not pointing this out to
have a go at the Americans, but rather using it as an example of how
dodgy expecting a spelling difference to help differentiate something
is...... a single letter in a cultivar name spelling such as the a in
your two different "cultivars" called Cham(a)eleon is just not enough
differentiation, regardless of how you format them. At this stage
the original hybrid may be very rare but you just never know what
will happen in the future with tissue culturing etc.

Then again, I guess this is no worse than importing new items into a
country and giving them a new name..... thereby muddying the waters
further and further as these plants are then interchanged with
overseas people as "new" cultivars etc. To me a cultivar name should
be unique and clearly distinguishable from previous names...... and
if it is not then the cultivar name should not be adopted. I can't
honestly see the sense in having to have the formatting of a name
being the only definition between two different plants. It's already
bad enough when you have subspecies that have the names of other
species (e.g Narcissus bulbocodium ssp serotinus etc) without an "x"
differentiating between two Paeonia (x) Cham(a)eleons (brackets
indicate optional items depending on which cultivar you're talking
about <grin>)

As to a counterproposal..... given the naming has taken place and
can't be reversed then I imagine there isn't really much of a
counterproposal that could be put forward is there? Other than not
letting it happen like this again?

Cheers.

Paul T.
Canberra, Australia - USDA Zone Equivalent approx. 8/9

Growing an eclectic collection of plants from all over the world
including Aroids, Crocus, Cyclamen, Erythroniums, Fritillarias,
Galanthus, Irises, Trilliums (to name but a few) and just about
anything else that doesn't move!!