Re: athyriums

Judith:

	I agree that we should always credit where the original plants came from,
such as in the case of A. f-f 'Dre's Dagger', since taking credit for
anything other than selecting a particular variant would be incorrect,
however the only proper way to name a distinctive form of a "grex" such as
Victoriae ferns is the way that it is being done.  To call the plant A. f-f
Victoriae Tall Form or A. f-f Victoriae Short Form does not adhere to the
Nomenclature Code.

	The past naming of ferns, especially from the Victorian Era is often at
odds with the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants.  In
the past, ferns and many other plants were given a cultivar name for an
entire group of varying seedlings (sporelings) that share the same parent
and some similar trait(s) as you mentioned with Athyrium f-f 'Victoriae' .
A mondern example would be xPardancandra 'Dazzler'.  This is an
iris-relative that was bred for a dwarf habit around 12-15".  It is also
propagated from seed and there is a slim chance that you could come up with
a plant that was 6" tall.  It would still have the "dwarf" stature which
distinguished the series, but would be desirable and distinctive enough to
warrant its own name if it was then vegetatively propagated.  We have made
a selection of a rain lily, Zephyranthes 'Labuffarosea'.  This seed strain,
discovered in Mexico, was named and sold with a cultivar name attached.
The flowers range from white to pink, but all has the same growth and
flowering time for which it was named.  We selected out a particularly
large flowered form which we now propagate from divisions and gave it a name.


Tony Avent
Plant Delights Nursery @
Juniper Level Botanic Garden
9241 Sauls Road
Raleigh, NC  27603  USA
Minimum Winter Temps 0-5 F
Maximum Summer Temps 95-105F
USDA Hardiness Zone 7b
email tony@plantdelights.com
website  http://www.plantdel.com
phone 919 772-4794
fax  919 772-4752
"I consider every plant hardy until I have killed it myself...at least
three times" - Avent

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