-----Original Message-----
From: pbs [mailto:pbs-bounces@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net] On Behalf Of
Jo&Greg
Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2018 12:43 PM
To: 'Pacific Bulb Society'
Subject: Re: [pbs] Question regarding commercial advertising

Perhaps a note or two regarding patented plants may help. My comments
come from my experience with publishing, and copyright info in both USA and
Canada ... copyright is slightly different yet using the same underlying
principles as a patent.
"Resale" and "propagation" and "commercial" all refer to for-profit business.
Non-profit organizations can offer books, plants, seed, etc., for sale without
crossing copyright -- and as far as I've found out -- patent regulations. Plant
patents are also legally suspect. You cannot patent a recipe or technique and
the horrible Monsanto cases against the grain farmers aside, some feel the
change in the plant is more like a recipe shift than something new or unique
(the DNA is not fundamentally changed), and natural self-sowing or seed drift
from natural sources are outside the purview of an intent to retail a product.
That said, plants can at present be patented.

So, I'd go ahead and have that plant sale and seed swap. And remember,
though we are not a group of veggies farmers, when it comes to Big Hort:
"Control my food, control my politics, control distribution, control my politics."
Just my old-hippie-somewhat-anarchistic opinion.
Jo Canning
Vancouver Island, Canada

-----Original Message-----
From: pbs <pbs-bounces@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> On Behalf Of Jan
Jeddeloh
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2018 4:10 PM
To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>
Subject: Re: [pbs] Question regarding commercial advertising

While we’re griping about Big Horticulture I’d like to add my gripe about
patented plants. I’ve been stung too often by patented pretty faces and have
learned that a patent does not necessarily reflect the value or grow-ability of
the plant, although it seems like it ought to. Too often big nurseries patent
every tiny variation and rush the plant to market. Sometimes it appears they
apply for a patent just to lock up the market for a year or two and then stop
producing the plant once the word gets out that it’s not a good doer. You go
to the nursery, are smitten with the pretty face, bring home your new plant
whereupon it promptly dies. I’ve had this experience several times. And
don’t get me started on the million heucheras or coneflowers out there. They
are sold as perennials but most have an annual life in your normal, less than
perfect home garden. You know, the home garden that does not have the
mythical well drained, evenly moist soil.

Patented plant are also becoming a problem for plant society plant sales. I
organize our NARGS chapter participation in the Hortlandia sale and we have
to watch that we don’t offer patented plants. As more and more plants are
patented it will become harder to find plants we can propagate. Yes growing
from seed it great but many of our members want to donate divisions and
cutting grown plants. Plant tags get lost and it would be very easy to
inadvertently offer a patented plant for sale.

I realize plant breeders want to get some kind of return from their investment
of time and money but it shouldn’t be too much to ask that the plants be good
doers and truly unique. They should also be adequately trailed. One or two
years is just not enough. I have found a couple of patented plants that are
worth growing. Geranium “Roxanne” blooms all summer, does not spit seed
all over and is tough. Salvia “Amistad”, while tender, puts on a great summer
show and is much beloved by bees and hummingbirds. It also seems rather
silly to patent plants that will self propagated. If it’s going to form a big
clump you can easily hack apart gardeners are going to share it around. This
takes no real skill. If you want to patent a plant it ought to require a bit of
skill to propagate or you will lose the battle of controlling its propagation.

To bring this back around to bulbs does anyone know of any patented bulbs? I
know Terra Nova at one point had applied for a patent on a Cyclamen coum
selection with a Christmas tree marking on the leaves. I wonder if this was
denied because it wouldn’t be hard to find look a likes in many groups of
coum seedlings. It’s not in their current catalog.

Jan Jeddeloh

wrote:

to live in Clackamas County, Oregon, which has more nurseries than any
other US county, so "local" can mean anything from a daphne at the farmers'
market to a viburnum from the big Monrovia fields on the other side of the
river. I buy some unusual cultivars and rooted cuttings for cutflowers by mail
order, mostly from specialty nurseries. Most years I obtain some commercial
bulbs for planting out in front of the house -- daffodils to distract the bulb fly
from the good ones in back, anemones and crocuses for the bulb lawn, etc.
Almost all of my bulb "collection" has been grown from seed.

nurseries, but small ones do so as well, especially in exaggerating cold-
hardiness. They may not mean to, but if you're growing plants on an island
you don't have the same conditions as most of your customers who live 150
km or more inland. Conversely, nurseries in colder areas who keep all their
stock in greenhouses may produce plants that are hard to acclimate to
outdoor conditions anywhere. Growing your own from seed is likely to result
in losses, but the survivors will be easier to keep, and much cheaper.

had been bulked up by keeping two cuttings in one pot, but I got it at the
farmers' market and the grower told me about it. It's a hybrid daphne; I was
able to disentangle the root systems, potted them separately for a couple of
months before planting out, and now have two very fine shrubs. This spring I
went on a spending spree on Dianthus cultivars. One nursery sent me
excellent plants, but another's plants had been in their pots far too long (I
repotted them and waited until they recovered to plant them out). I almost
never put a purchased plant into the garden the day after I get it. For one
thing, you have to watch them for disease.

habitats, and structure of the particular species and genera. Bulbs with strong
tunics, such as tulips, can stand dry storage much better than those without
tunics, such as most Fritillaria. A species native to rocky desert will survive
storage better than one native to river meadows. A species native to the
alpine zone may not flourish without a long winter dormancy (hence the
plants "hardy in Denver" that can't be grown in lowland gardens). It is also
instructive to learn how commercial bulbs are grown and processed in the
Netherlands, where they can be grown in sand, heavily fertilized, protected
from predators, lifted and kept in warehouses controlled for temperature and
humidity, and exported in advantageous condition. After a month at Home
Depot and transfer to a home garden, they'll likely perform for a year but
that may be the limit of their adaptability. Moreover, controlled conditions
can suppress the activity of viruses, which may resurface in the home garden;
that's why all my tulips are grown from seed, and I buy lily bulbs only from
The Lily Garden, which I trust to provide clean stock.

identify an experienced gardener by their possession of a big bag of plantless
labels.

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