Selling Your Plants!

foreign_correspondent

Davesnave wrote: »

Knowing about it is fine, laudable even, but the selling of a few protected plants is in no way regarded as in the same league as pirating DVDs and computer games. There is a danger that people reading this thread might see it like that.

There are thousands of folk up & down the land, in WIs and garden clubs, merrily pirating plants, often in total ignorance of this law, and that's not a problem for anyone.

Personally, I can't see much difference between pirating CDs and plants... the principle is exactly the same. However, I have on occasion, sold a few plants through what used to be the WI (now country markets) and they are generally mindful of the legislation!

I think this is a relevant point in a discussion regarding plant propegation and selling and I cannot see why you seem to object to me bringing it up, which you seem to, unless I have misinterpreted your posts.

Davesnave

foreign_correspondent wrote: »

Personally, I can't see much difference between pirating CDs and plants... the principle is exactly the same. However, I have on occasion, sold a few plants through what used to be the WI (now country markets) and they are generally mindful of the legislation!

I think this is a relevant point in a discussion regarding plant propegation and selling and I cannot see why you seem to object to me bringing it up, which you seem to, unless I have misinterpreted your posts.

I don't mind you bringing it up at all. Yes, it is relevant, but maybe it is also pertinent to question whether the legislation you quote is strictly applicable in the circumstances we're discussing, or whether it's meant for something entirely different.

As I've said, I have a patented plant myself. It cost me about £2k, put up by my commercial partner initially and deducted from my royalties. There's an annual administration charge as well. I simply share in the success or failure of the plant in a commercial environment and, so far, there has been no large profit.

If you were Joe Bloggs Enterprises, propagating my plant by the thousand and selling it wholesale, then yes, I would want a slice of the action. However, if you are Mrs Scroggs, putting out 20 of my plants a year for the WI, my take on that would be about 80p before admin. and, frankly, I'm not bothered. Bearing in mind the administrative nightmare, I don't think my commercial partners would be bothered either.

In a long-winded nutshell, that's why I don't think you should be dissuading people from propagating & selling whatever they fancy, within reason. The mechanisms for collecting the royalties or policing what's sold informally just don't exist.

Whether people should be informally selling or buying fruit plants which are not certified virus-free is a much more productive line of discussion IMHO.