I wonder if the American Hosta Society would be concerned about this kind of marketing.

Steve

It does make me wonder, now you mention it, if any of the "trademarked" hosta.....might be patented. I don't see it happening that the registered owner would sanction such a confusion of names.

And, I googled "Blew Label Perennials" to see what is coming up, and our thread about Irish Diamonds is there, but not yet this one. Top listing is of course the home website of Blew Label Perennials. I'm wondering now just how many incarnations they have in case they morph into another scene, like a fungus.

However, I did find where BKay had posted about a plant she bought which she questioned....and I'm putting that link below. Might as well round up the story in one spot while we are at it.

Here is a link that might be useful: BKay's experience with Blue Label

Blewline Nursery is another part of the Blew family of nurseries. This is what I found in the FAQ list there:

"Do you sell any plants directly retail/mail order?
Though BlewLine is a wholesale-only business, we do own a mail order website called WoodsideNursery.com. There we sell bareroot daylilies to gardeners and collectors worldwide."

However, the website at Shopify is no longer available it says. So the FAQ is not up to date.

Then in another part of the site, I really forget where, I quote this:
"Why don�t you sell via mail order?
Others are better suited than we are to processing mail orders. We authorize two affiliate firms dedicated to that facet, to sell our Daylilies in bare root form via mail order. They are:

WoodsideNursery.com
White Flower Farm "

And I recall getting a lot of email from White Flower Farm. Did not realize that they were contracted to sell the daylily product for Centerton.

steve... and what might they do about it.. its not like the club is floating in money ... and whats the base complaint.. a fake TM?? .. changing the name of a hosta????

and moc.. there is no reg'd owner of these OLD non-descrip plants ... APM has been around 30 years.. he's dead.. lol .. and so is whoever named the plant after him.. if it wasnt himself ... and if you study it close.. its really UGLY!!!! ... without some new marketing.. no one would buy these things. ...

its all hoakum.. i am just surprised at how upset you are all getting over it ... pretty soon the pitchforks are going to come out.. and people will be stompin off the NJ ... NJ??? whats that all about .. never really thought of NJ as the horticultural center of the universe.. lol ..

ken

ps: i do like toku aureo ... it descript.. but that didnt fit in my tirade.. lol ..

Hey, New Jersey's the Garden State. Maybe the AHS can afford the postage to send them a nasty letter. I'd better go pay my dues.

Steve

You guys are pi**ing in the wind. First, legally, it's expensive to prove a plant "is" or "isn't" some specific variety. Second, they are not patented or trademarked plants, so are you ready to prove he Hosta Society has the say-so in what a plant is called?

I suggest you look at the hosta, "Sun Hosta", which is patented, but not registered by one of the major growers. It sure looks like So Sweet. They say it's a sport. How can you prove it one way or the other?

bkay

Okay, I'll get real here.

sigh....

It's been a hard week for me. Sorry folks.

What I think is important here is finding out about this company and I will make sure I never buy anything that originated from them because I feel I can't trust them. I wonder if the companies selling their products know?
Cher

So we know that Blew label is fake, do not buy from them because they are muddling up horticulture by renaming cultivars. But there are others also trying to redefine science...

I'll just point out that we all know that you can't trust the labels on hostas at the garden centers anyway. Just don't buy anything in a blue container if you want to avoid this grower.

Prolly about 95 percent of the people who are buying hosta in garden centers are buying with their eyes and don't care what the label says anyway. They like the way it looks in the pot, take it home, plant it and toss the tag.

Most of the rest of us, the hardcore hostaholics, are buying online from trusty sources because we are buying a name. For myself, I've added prolly around 50 plus new hostas in the last couple of years. (I'm afraid to do an actual count! In truth, the real number is probably more like 75...) The best that I recall is that only eight of those hostas have been purchased locally, plus one NOID from a rummage sale.

I would prefer to be able to buy locally but the selection is so poor...You know it's bad when you have the best luck finding something newish at Lowe's or WalMart... For instance, I want to get Liberty...hosta of the year, ought to be easy enough to find. I finally found it at a nursery that's in another town about forty miles away. Price, with sales tax, north of $20. Single eye, beat up by sun & wind, the leaves crusted with mineral deposits from overhead watering. While I'd be willing to accept a crumby looking plant in Sept or Oct, back in July when I saw this Liberty, I wanted a plant that looked good, esp if I'm shelling out over 20 bucks for it. So, I passed and am still w/o Liberty. :(

Now, I've lost whatever train of thought I had...I guess that story was to illustrate why some of us more ardent Hostaholics are going the mail order route (besides the HVX issue)...otherwise, you can't find what you want, can't trust the label anyway, plants poorly tended to, $4 a gallon gasoline that dampers enthusiasm for The Hunt....

Like I said, if you want to avoid Blew plants, just don't buy anything in a blue nursery container.

Oh, yeh, I agree with Ken. APMcConnell is an ugly hosta. Giving it a glitzy new name is like putting lipstick on a pig.

OTOH, I really like tokaduma flavocircinalis. Calling it 'Happy Hippo' (ugh) is an insult to the plant and just downright sick. Esp, in view of the fact that hippos are one of the meanest, nastiest & most aggressive animals on the face of the Earth.

I've gotten mislabeled plants from mail order "hosta growers" and they didn't want to do anything about it. I've bought plants that they say on their website are gallon and get them and they are in 2" and 3" pots. I've bought plants that the grower shipped on 100 degree days when I asked them not to. I've gotten plants that are so young, I wished I had ordered liners at 1/4 the price. "Hosta growers" are no panacea. Some are really good and some fall down occasionally, and then sometimes they fall down quite often.

Below is the Blew Label plant and two mail order plants I got at the same time. I paid more than $20.00 each + shipping (the total was over $50.) for the smaller ones. Their website said that they shipped gallon sized plants except for minis. (Those are 8" pots.) So, basically, I paid the same price for each of these hosta, the small ones came from a "hosta grower". I will definitely buy Blew Label again, and I won't buy from that "hosta grower" again.

I'm cranky today anyway and I'm really tired of growers who have no customer service whatsoever. I've seen "hosta growers" attack clients publicly on this forum. I've had a different one do the same thing to me privately. Yet, you guys continue to attack any retail venue, no matter who it is and tout these backyard growers like they all do a good job. Did you see the hosta with the artillery fungus this week? It was obviously from a "hosta grower". We don't know who the grower is, but it's obviously not a good deal.

They aren't all Hallson's.

bkay

Ci, I agree, calling it HAPPY HIPPO is an insult.
My opinion there is, the message they are conveying to the ordinary garden center shopper, is THIS PLANT WILL BE LARGE AND TOUGH. I mean, look at the popularity of RHINO HIDE,
and it is not growing as large as tokudama flavocircinalis. But with TF as a name, you don't sell a mental image of a large vigorous plant. It is all about the marketing.

Ci, you are also right that I'd rather spend some extra money in shipping fees, and do the order from the computer, than come in from the garden all sweaty and a real MESS, and have to break my work day up to go shop at any place in town. Now, I must admit, the local nursery where I am well known and welcomed warmly is always a pleasure to visit, but without a personal connection I'd sooner order online.

I always enjoy placing my order with Nancy Solberg on the phone, or Gary at Naylor, or Chris at Hallson, or Sue at Mason Hollow, or Avalon Acres, on the phone, because there is a recognition on both ends of the conversation, that we are individuals not just nameless faces.....although chances of us meeting face to face are pretty slim, I do not feel INVISIBLE as is often the case walking through a big box store.

Isn't it interesting that the recent issue of The Hosta Journal has a couple of articles which are about names and such. I did not realize that the hosta name pool had such muddy water below the surface. Take a look at it.

Also a feature named
H. 'White Christmas'--a Victim of Identity Theft

And, on p. 7 Barbara Schroeder writes the item AHS PUBLICATIONS HAVE NEW STANDARD FOR ORIGINATOR CREDITS AFTER CULTIVAR NAMES.

Plus I was most interested in a British garden chosen as a display garden, 350 hosta, and all (or most all maybe) in containers. How The Goodwin Garden manages to keep the place looking gorgeous all year round seems important now as the dormant season is on the horizon.

VERY good issue!

Bkay, that is one gorgeous Striptease! I'm stunned that you were charged $20 each for the two small hostas. Live and learn I suppose...

Deanna