Fw: Registration
- Subject: Fw: Registration
- From: B* M*
- Date: Sat, 19 May 2001 23:14:16 -0400
OK Chick,
> What are you, some kind of Communist? The market is, by definition, about
> supply and demand. I'm not sure which hostas qualify as junk, but which
> ever
> hostas your are talking about, they will only be sold if that's what the
> buyers
> want. There is no shortage of suppliers and competition, no shortage of
> information, and no shortage of choices.
Do the buyers want three plants named 'Loyalist', 'Fire and Ice', and 'Paul
Revere', all of which are in effect the same plant? Some I've talked to
seem
to think they've been taken advantage of, fooled into buying a plant they
already have. Did anyone demand three plants with the same name? Is there a
great selection of really exciting new plants this year? I've seen a few,
along with a few more ordinary things with fancy descriptions, and a few
tissue-culture culls that wouldn't get anyone excited. We've seen some
beautiful plants on hostapix that are far more interesting than many of the
new plants in catalogs this year.
>First Look is a great idea and I support it
> 100%, I'll be there and hope everyone else will too, but it is going to
do
> nothing of the kind. Nurseries have absolutely no difficulty in finding
> great
> plants to produce right now.
If nurseries have no difficulty finding great plants how come we don't see
them for sale? A look through the new plants available this year hasn't
sent
everybody to raiding their kids' college funds to get a few more
irresistable new ones. The big new intro from Walters is a sport of
'Hyacinthina', Shady Oaks is offering a 'Fragrant Bouquet' sport. Both are
actually pretty nice, but where are the newer seedlings? We're stuck in a
rut of endless variations of the same old thing.
>It happens because of the rules of the AHS. There are
> obviously identical or nearly identical plants being sold under different
> names,
> but that's what the AHS dictates
Oh, come on! The AHS doesn't "dictate" anything of the kind. They couldn't
if they wanted to. The Registrar wants them registered that way to avoid
having two different plants with the same name. That's all. The decision to
sell them under different names is made by the nurseries for marketing
reasons. They felt they would sell more of them if they had a different
name. In the past several different plants showed up under the name
'Whirlwind', because the marketing decision then was to sell them under a
recognized name. If two people found the same sport in the same
tissue-culture batch on the same day, the odds are pretty good that only
one
new plant was found that day. Putting more than one name on it is not
supply
and demand, it's just a marketing decision. Nobody really demands that.
As I said, First Look offers an alternative. There will be new plants
there to produce. Maybe not too many the first time, but if it catches on
there should be plenty in the future, as more and more people are
discovering the fun of raising hosta from seed. How much it changes the
marketplace remains to be seen, but it can if people want it too. The
nurseries obviously want to have new offerings each year, and if there's
not
anything good to offer, something will still be offered. Why not give them
a
chance to see the really good plants that hybridizers have produced and
make
arrangements with them. Maybe then they really will be able to find great
plants to produce, instead of just saying they do. Let's face it, nobody
says in their catalogs that this year's new ones are pretty dull, but maybe
we'll have better ones next year.
..........Bill Meyer
BTW I don't think Chick is an evil, manipulative, power-crazy tyrant, out
to sieze control of the hosta world, and never once did I call him an
insincere blowhard. Chick is a friend of mine and I think 'Satisfaction'
looks great this year.
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