Question regarding commercial advertising

Tim Eck teck11@embarqmail.com
Thu, 21 Jun 2018 19:00:22 PDT
It's worth mentioning that "the horrible Monsanto cases" were decided based on the willful intent and action of a farmer to steal the RoundUp Ready gene from a neighbor's pollen source and breed his own RoundUp Ready seed without compensating Monsanto.  It's so easy to buy into villainizing propaganda when you only get your information from "like-minded people".

Tim Eck

“Time is nature’s way of preventing everything from happening at once.”
Anon.



> -----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
> > On Jun 20, 2018, at 9:59 AM, Jane McGary <janemcgary@earthlink.net>
> wrote:
> >
> > I've been purchasing plants and bulbs for about 35 years now. I'm fortunate
> 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.
> >
> > I agree with Robin that there's false advertising by large commercial
> 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.
> >
> > Two years ago I had the experience Ellen mentions of buying a shrub that
> 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.
> >
> > As for bulbs that fail, it helps to understand the growth cycles, natural
> 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.
> >
> > So read, read, read, and be prepared to lose some plants anyway. You can
> identify an experienced gardener by their possession of a big bag of plantless
> labels.
> >
> > Jane McGary
> >
> > Portland, Oregon, USA
> >
> >
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