Gardendaze

Conard-Pyle, the same company that brought Knock Out to market introduced Drift® groundcover roses. These are shortest roses, overall, of all the rose series; in fact they are sold as groundcover roses. This has to do partly with their parentage, which is part groundcover rose and part miniature rose.

This is my first year trying a Drift® rose. Like Knockout®, they too come in 7 colors but their colors are softer colors of pink, apricot and rose. There is also a white, sold as Popcorn Drift.® The full range of colors can be seen on the marketer’s web site, here.

Because this is my first year, I can’t tell you ultimately how this rose will behave for me (This is Drift Red–I tried to choose roses in complimentary colors and the Spoiler likes red, so this was an easy one). Thus far it has been pest and disease resistant for 2 months in a pot–that’s really saying something considering that it is relatively crowded (both in the pot and close to the other roses).

Ultimately, I don’t know whether it will prove to fend off the rose sawfly larva and Japanese beetles as well as Knock Out does. Knock Out’s leaves are thicker than any of the other roses I’ll talk about over this month-long discussion. I don’t know if that’s what makes it so resiliant–but I’m sure it can’t hurt!

So far what I can tell you is that I’m not fond of the way the dying roses look in combination with those just opening. I’ve been clipping them out–and that doesn’t really make them “easy care,” now does it?

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And I promised a bit about the "trademarking" of roses. This really has to do with the trademarking or patenting of all plants, generally. If you think back to my post of June 3, you might have paid no attention to the fact that each rose was in a distinctive pot: Knock Out was in a lime green pot with its name and Star Roses on the side; Drift was in a white pot that said Drift groundcover roses and the David Austin rose was in a tall, dark green pot with gold lettering and its name on it–very elegant. I've linked to that post here so you can go back to check if you care to.

Rose growers are not the only ones trademarking their plants. Probably the most recognized trademark out there is Proven Winners–I know you all have seen the white pots in various sizes with the big PW on the side. Annuals, perennials and shrubs all bear the PW logo.

Great, but what does it mean? Pretty simply, it means that these are all patented plants and reproduction is prohibited–in plain english, that means you can’t take a cutting or root a part of these plants and share them with fellow gardeners or sell them at your neighborhood or garden club plant sale.

I talk about this a lot because as gardeners, we are some of the most generous people on the planet. If someone comes to the garden and admires a plant and we have more than enough to share, we do it! And right now, there are no “plant police” prohibiting this practice.

But do take care with these patented plants–because legally you are not supposed to be sharing them at all, even with fellow gardeners.

And since more and more plants are coming to market as patented trademarked plants, it’s gardener beware!