Maybe I'm missing something here, but this doesn't seem right to me whatsoever.
Ultimately, the plants are simply beautiful and the goal of J. Berry Nursery is to get them out into the marketplace as quickly as they can, so gardeners like yourself can get access to them and enjoy them. "
If I am understanding this right, Man A hybridized a plant. Man B later renamed the plant what he wanted and told everyone it was "new" and convinced the USDA to legalize his fancy scheme so he could sell them to folks who thought they were buying his plant, a new variety, and make a wad of money. Now he may have not printed all that on the tag but that is what the consumer is led to believe. Is that the boiled down version?
The nursery who is promoting the said plant somehow washes their hands of the ordeal saying they are only trying to make people's yards pretty. lol What if the music industry started taking Man A's song, letting Man B sing it, and then rename it and then say they are only trying to make pretty music available to everyone?
I am not very educated on all this topic, but lets face it, most of the public isn't, so I would say in that regard I am the typical consumer. On the one hand, I just want a nice plant and I don't care who hybridized it or where it came from or whatever. On the other had, I think someone in the USDA has their hands in someone's cookie jar, that or they are eating donuts over there. Probably both, after all they run by the Gooberment. Legal or not, it all seems in bad taste to me. Just because something is legal doesn't mean you shouldn't think it through first. I wouldn't want to be Man B and I sure would be embarassed if I was USDA.
In the case of daylilies, I don't know that they are patented. I think a handful of them are, but in general they are not. There is really nothing I suppose that prevents Man B from renaming a daylily and selling it. I know that it happens. Just look thought some fakely colored junk mail flyers and look up those names on AHS, most of the time they don't exist as registered names. But who is going to do anything about it? It isn't really a mainstream practice-MOST daylily nurseries are legit. Those of us that know daylilys, can see this kind of thing coming. Those who do not know much about daylilies don't care anyway. But the point is, it may be "legal" or they may get away with it or whatever, but it is generally frowned on, and called out when it is discovered, and those few nurseries who do this are the kind that get poor ratings on Watch Dog.
I bought one of the CM at Home Depot, and I don't care if it is old, new or what the name is. I liked the plant. I will admit that I thought it was a NEW cultivar. I don't know if it said that on the tag or not, maybe I made a hasty assumption. At any rate that doesn't bother me. What bothers me is that, it seems like the hybridizer got ripped. Legal or not, I think it smells rotten. And even more disappointing that our taxes pay to support the USDA, an office that is supposed to protect the hybridizer and the consumer and prevent this kind of thing, that the public should be able to TRUST> nothing trustworthy going on here. All seems deceptive.
