It's all very confusing____?

15 years ago

The scenario__

A local plant outlet, that frequently imports plants from Europe, is offering 2 very nice Hellebores, named 'Candy Love'(H. x ericsmithii) & 'Snow Love' (H. x nigercors)

Since they were new to me, I decided to find some information about them on the web.

The first site I found, listed both as H. nigercors,

the second one was the same as my local outlet.

That encouraged me to determine which was correct and that led to the US Patent office.

Both Patents clearly state that the Botanical designation is, Helleborus times(x) nigercors. That would explain the information from the first website.

But, and that's a BIG BUT, if you read the Patent and believe the parentage information contained therein, neither one is a Helleborus x nigercors!

Quoting..

PP19413-Helleborus plant named 'Candy Love'

The new Helleborus originated from a cross-pollination in Oostkamp, Belgium, of a proprietary selection of Helleborus niger designated as Wilgenbroek Selection, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with a proprietary selection of Helleborus lividus, also designated as Wilgenbroek Selection, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent.

I may be wrong, but that sounds like the description of Helleborus x ballardiae!

PP19559-Helleborus plant named 'Snow Love'

The new Helleborus originated from a cross-pollination in Oostkamp, Belgium, of a proprietary selection of Helleborus niger designated as Wilgenbroek Selection, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with a proprietary selection of Helleborus.times.sternii, also designated as Wilgenbroek Selection, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent.

That would qualify as Helleborus x ericsmithii, unless all of the information previously learned was incorrect!

I hate it when plants are marketed with improperly applied names, but you can't fault the retailer. He is trying to offer an attractive plant at a reasonable price and move thousands of them off the shelf, in order to make a decent profit. In this case, it appears that everything was confused from the beginning, unless it's me that's totally confused!

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Comments (4)

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
15 years ago
Here's my take on it :-)

1) The vast majority of the plant purchasing public doesn't really care all that much about proper labelling - they see a plant they like and they buy it. 75% will probably not know the proper botanical name anyway.

2) A lot of growers and retailers are still persisting under old terminology/outdated taxonomy - how many times have you seen Helleborus x hybridus sold as Helleborus orientalis? The popularity of hellebores is still pretty recent and I'd venture to say that other than the genus afficionados and qualified growers, there's more misnaming of hellebores on the market than there is of correct labelling.

3) If you know enough about the plants to suspect mislabelling - as you obviously do - or are looking at specific plants for possible hybriding purposes of your own, then doing the research - such as you've done - is definitely the way to go to assure yourself of what you are getting.

What I find disturbing about all of this is that the misinformation seems to arise from the breeder and his patent information, either directly or from whomever he has licensed to market and sell his plants in the US. One would hope that at least the breeder/hybridizer would be familiar enough with the plants he is producing and the proper nomenclature associated with the specific hybrids to at least reflect the correct info in the patent application. I don't blame you for being confused!! It seems like you are the only one that's got it worked out correctly :-)

ps. I checked out the patent info for 'Candy Love' - the application compares it to 'Pink Beauty', which they also refer to as a nigricors but is in actuality an ericksmithii. I'd give them the benefit of the doubt with a language hurdle from Dutch to English but the entire point of botanical Latin is remove these obstacles so the terminology is universal! Given all that, one would have to have some suspicions on the accuracy of the hybridizing information and the true parentage.
georgia-rose
Original Author
15 years ago
gardengal48__
Whatever they are, I'm the curious person that loves a mystery! So, I am purchasing a dozen of each, to grow onto maturity and find what they really are.
If they are actually H. x ballardiae & H. x ericsmithii, then that will be a plus. If in fact, they are H. x nigercors, they will still be a desirable plant and in either case a bargain at $30/doz. in 5" pots.

I am also disturbed that the examiner in the Plant Patent office is so inexperienced and/or unconcerned that those glaring errors in the Patent application went unchallenged, during a period of up to two years or more, that they often require to approve an application. Those are not the first Plant Patents that I have read, that contained errors.
You often wonder if the sole mission of the Plant Patent office is only to grant exclusive marketing rights to the applicant. MO
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gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
15 years ago
If the parentage (forget the labelling) is correct, which one would hope it would be, then you are looking at situation #1 :-) And you could be correct about the patent office. I wonder if they are just administrators/processors and not "plant people" at all????
goswimmin
15 years ago
I am curious if you did indeed go buy those. I am also wondering if these were from the Growers Outlet in Loganville. I saw their ad and will be going next week.
If you got them I am wondering how they look. I was going to buy a few myself. I have an Ericsmitii-Pink Beauty that I got several years ago and was hoping they resembled those. For the price, I don't imagine they will be in bloom.
Mary/Gainesville, GA