Stephen Howard28/4/04 11:27

On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 23:14:47 +0100, "Lyn" wrote:

While wandering round a local garden centre today I stopped to admire a
clematis, and on reading the label was surprised to see in bold letters
"propogation of this plant is illegal". Now since a lot of the pleasure I
get from gardening is from growing my own stock from one plant (and being
broke it is often the only way I can increase my plants), this warning
stopped me from buying, but I'm moved to ask if this is a rare happening or
a new trend?

Blimey!

Never heard of that one before!
If it's a new trend then I strongly urge all gardeners everywhere to
boycott such plants - and send the breeders a very firm and clear
message that they can stuff their marketeering up their warm, damp
spot.

You're talking about Plant Breeder's Rights which is just the same as a
Patent. The breeder of the plant has to breed or discover it, propagate
enough of it to go for testing as to viability and reliability and pay to
have it registered. That registration costs around £1,000 or more. This is
*exactly* the same as someone taking out a patent on a gadget which you
cannot reproduce and sell as your own invention. I know the inventor of the
Black & Decker Workmate and some years ago he told me that never a day goes
by that he isn't defending its patent in some country somewhere in the
world.
My husband has PBR on some plants and they are an important source of income
to the Nursery. However, while the label may have made that perfectly
correct statement, plant breeders and their agents aren't interested in the
amateur gardener taking one or two cuttings and handing them around, though
I'm not sure why anyone wants two of the same Clematis in their garden -
each to their own, however.

In reality, It's not worth their while policing your garden! They're
interested in commercial growers taking hundreds or thousands of illegal
cuttings and avoiding payment of a percentage to the breeder and the agent.
We've had to take action against someone doing just that in another country,
hoping they wouldn't be spotted.
I wouldn't worry about your own small number of cuttings but equally, please
do not dismiss people who spend a lot of time, money and effort in breeding
the plants you like to buy as greedy.
And as a piece of information as a side dish, many of the plants you buy
with the brightly coloured picture labels in their pots will have PBR
attached to them e.g. Surfinias which, according to my husband *all* have
PBR. All those lovely David Austin 'own brand' roses are the same.
This is nothing new and applies to very many plants.

--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)