Re: Hybridizers rights--versus Labors of Love

In a message dated 97-03-03 12:25:36 EST, you write:

<< I would guess that about 75% of the lily bulbs on the market carry plant
 patents and can't legally be propagated without permission. >>

Iris breeding has been a labor of love performed overwhelmingly by amateurs.
 The American Iris Society, founded in 1920, and the British Iris Society,
founded shortly thereafter, from the outset were opposed to plant patents.
 This policy has been of great benefit to iris breeding. The late Henry
Mitchell, a great garden writer and dear friend, once remarked to a crowd of
admirers that no garden perennial has been so remarkable transformed by
amateur gardeners in the 20th century as the bearded iris. 

I like lilies very much and grow a number of them. I belong to the local Lily
Society and have no prejudice against them.  But dispite the wide range of
 species available for breeders to work with, there is still little diversity
in cultivars in comparison with even just one class of irises, say the tall
bearded iris class.  Could capitalistic considerations have retarded their
development?

Those of us who are appointed judges by the American Iris Society use our
critical faculties to evaluate and compare.  For example,  I do not like the
way that a positively gorgeous cultivar such as EDITH WOLFORD performs in
comparison to the superb grower and very floriferous cultivar JESSE'S SONG, a
lovely but perhaps less colorful iris.  But none of my critical remarks
directed at EDITH WOLFORD makes that iris less beautiful when it is
performing at its best.  

I make these comments for this reason:  When we look upon a bed of gorgeous
irises in bloom we might remember that love, not the desire for money,
produced them. Many worship at capitalistic shrines in my country.  But in
the final analysis it is comforting to think that love remains a greater
force than greed.    When we view our irises, this is, I believe, a worthy
thought to keep in mind.
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