Background history:

'Ruby Sentinel' is a dormant tetraploid introduced in 1991 by Benz.

It has earned the following AHS awards:
Honorable Mention: 2000

This plant can be found in our Plant Database at:
Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Ruby Sentinel') .

Please join in, if you own this plant! We would love to know more! I award an acorn for performance information posted to this thread.



Also, please consider adding a Plant Performance Report to the database! Thank you!

Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Ruby Sentinel')

This is an excellent plant. The fans grow to very large sizes and the blooms are held nice and high above the foliage. The red is a strong red with a much darker red eyezone. It holds it's color very well in the heat and sun but also still displays strong color when grown in part shade. My one knock on it is that it seems very slow to increase. I have had 2 large fans for 3 seasons now without a single increase yet. Both fans have bloomed reliably every season though.

In the database, I see a company selling this plant and it says "PPAF Plant propagation prohibited", the Hybridizer is shown as Benz, the company selling the plant is Sooner Plant Farm. Who wants to pay $20.00 for a single daylily that can't be multiplied or crossed? How is that suppose to work, makes no sense to me? Is that saying that Benz created the plant and Sooner Plant farm has patented the plant and no one else can sell it or cross it?
Should plants like this just be avoided?

You partially misunderstand PPAF designation. It does mean you can't increase THIS plant for sale...but you can give it away. The pollen or seed produced by it is not under the effect of the patent and may be used without permission.

Also...it don't mean that only 'Sooner' can sell it either. I bought mine at a local nursery. It just means part of the sale goes to the patent holder.

I searched the web and found so much conflicting info, it looks like any plant marked like that I would just plain avoid like the plague. That one will not go on my want list!
I just noticed that Sooner describes the plant as Hemerocallis x 'Ruby Sentinel' Benz described it as Illini Show Girl x Ed Marshall.
If I grew this and gave the plants away would I be responsible for telling them that they could not sell the plants? If I bought the plant from someone that does not have it patented could I sell the plants I multiplied and grew? It all seems to confusing to me, and I don't get the point of it with daylilies especially.
It seems anyone buying that $20.00 plant from sooner would be getting the short end of the stick if they were selling plants.

@Seedfork
@robertduval14

"A plant patent expires 20 years from the filing date of the patent application. As with utility applications, when the plant patent expires, the subject matter of the patent becomes public domain." -- https://www.uspto.gov/patents-...

So, since Ruby Sentinal was introduced in 91, the patent has expired (from how I read the US patent office info..)

Thanks, I had read about the 20 year expiration date. I guess my question now is, is the patent date based on when the plant was introduced or can the patent be taken out years later, making the expiration date extend way past the 20 yrs from introduction? I guess a person would be required to know all that before buying the plant, sounds like a big mess to me.

Seedfork said:I just noticed that Sooner describes the plant as Hemerocallis x 'Ruby Sentinel' Benz described it as Illini Show Girl x Ed Marshall.

That is not Sooners description of it...it is their name for it. It should simply read Hemerocallis 'Ruby Sentinel' with the 'x' not in there. A lot of places (unfortunately) do this as a way to indicate it's a hybrid. Sometimes 'plant' people are not 'plant nomenclature' people.

Seedfork said:Thanks, I had read about the 20 year expiration date. I guess my question now is, is the patent date based on when the plant was introduced or can the patent be taken out years later, making the expiration date extend way past the 20 yrs from introduction? I guess a person would be required to know all that before buying the plant, sounds like a big mess to me.

I think you may be overthinking it...it would stagger you to know just how many plants have patent rights attached to them. A HUGE number of annuals sold at nurseries across the country every year fall into this category.

@Seedfork from what I read the plant must be patented within a year of public introduction...

Ruby Sentinel has never been the subject of a patent application. Sounds to me as if a bit of catalog boilerplate was mistakenly left in the description.

Well, in that case I might take a second look at the plant.

There are very few dl patented.
A patent as I understand means that the plant is not to be propagated. I understand that means even if you are giving it away, not just selling it. I am not even sure if you are supposed to propagate it for your own use. ?

Tag on one of my plants (not dl) says Asexual reproduction of plants protected by the Plant Patent Act is prohibited.
Does not say ok for yourself, your friend, ect... says prohibited. Unless you are advertising or selling it though, I'm not sure how the plant police find out you gave a piece to your mom

I would say many say 'patent pending' because getting a patent from start to finish is expensive and red-tapish. (spell check says that is not a word )