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ROSES - Part 1

Most Australian roses have been raised by amateurs who have very generously donated them to the National Rose Society of some particular State. As one would expect from an amateur, the descriptions have been given in terms that can never be said to be extravagant. They are certainly not examples of high-pressure salesmanship. The roses have never been forced on a sensation-hungry public with magnificent colour-plates and extravagant catalogue eulogies. The raiser cannot be expected to provide colour-plates or even black-and-white plates to boost the sales of his roses. Possibly the Society to which roses are given should do it, and in not having done so has been responsible for loss of income for itself and failure to popularize the roses.

Oversea varieties are distributed by commercial organiza­tions, who build up much of their reputation and trade by their novelties. In 1930 the legislation covering patents in the United States of America was amended by the addition of regulations covering the patenting of plant varieties. Similar enactments now operate in France and Holland, while other countries are considering the necessary addition to their legis-lation, but each patent applies only to the country in which it is registered. Nearly all outstanding new roses of the world are now patented by the raiser or the introducer into America, and sales distribution is consequently handled on a protected basis. The monopoly granted by the patent for seventeen years, in America, gives the distributor greatly increased profits, which make elaborate advertising worth while. The holder of a patent may issue licences to others to "make, use or vend" the patented variety, and his charges to them are a matter of private arrange­ment. In many parts of the world the distributor has no ex­clusive rights over a rose after he has released it. Of course, in its first year, he offers a plant for sale at as high a price as he considers he can obtain, and in the next year or two, when other retailers are cataloguing the variety, he and they ask more for it than for older roses, but he has no way of deriving indirect profits from royalties and licences, and he gets direct profits for only two or three years. This legislation has given a great stimulus to the raising of new varieties in large numbers by commercial organizations in the United States, and the purchaser does not seem to have to pay more for plants of novelty roses than he would if no such regulations existed. An amateur rose-grower in any country may sell to a nurseryman the budding-wood of a new variety, whether it be a sport or a seedling of his own raising, without losing his amateur status. New Dawn was the first rose patented.

Each variety of rose in commerce is given a name by its raiser or distributor. This is known as its horticultural or varietal name as distinct from its botanical name, which, of course, is the same for all garden varieties of each type. The same applies to all kinds of plants. With no control exercised over the naming of varieties, many plants each came to be known under many titles, often influenced by their colours, perfumes, habit of growth, or association with localities or persons, especi­ally with enterprising, but not necessarily honest salesmen. Some varieties of some plants accumulated several hundred horticultural names. The first step towards controlling plant nomenclature was made in the United States of America in 1847. A code of rules was drawn up, aiming at bringing about the consistent use of only one name for each variety of every plant in commerce. Later a set of international rules for botanical nomenclature was devised. This dealt with both botanical and horticultural titles, and aimed at eliminating confusion by preventing the altering of names without the sanction of an international committee, and by prohibiting duplication of names. This is quite distinct from all considera­tion of patents.