I was super excited to find this article on NPR last Thursday and although it might be hard to pinpoint the beginning of a trend, I'd like to think the Open Source Seed Initiative is at least a hint of a larger societal backlash to the over patenting of plant varieties, cultivars and hybrids. While patent law is limited when it comes to plants, it is also often overly complicated (see BiOS) and seems to be developing in such a way that it often trumps on the rights of small plant breeders and the general welfare of the global community in order to protect those of financially minded private interests and large agribusiness (see "History of Seed Patents"). While I've probably seen one too many biased documentaries (If you haven't seen The Future of Food please watch it!!!), this overly complicated network of patents, and increasingly complicated patent law acts as not only a barrier to horticultural innovation ("Roses Puncture the Case for Plant Patents" @ Daily Yonder), but flies in the face of thousands of years of agricultural and horticultural tradition.
07/20/2014 - UPDATE: Just came across this posting from the awesome Joseph Tychonievich that demonstrates the real world implications of plant patent law.
And so, in celebration and recognition of the Open Source Seed Initiative, here is my yearly post on ideas for hybrids this season, as well as some updates on last years projects.
Callisia rosea x Tradescantia longipes
While this definitely falls under the category of "because I want to" the result could yield a real workhorse of a garden plant. Granted both of these plants are pretty awesome, each have few drawbacks that are perfectly complimented by the strengths of the other. I actually wasn't even aware of the southeastern US genus Callisia until the release this past year of "Morning Grace". Unfortunately, C. rosea, while often listed as being hardy to zone 5, is most likely only reliably hardy through zone 6 (if that). In addition, C. rosea seems to have an affinity for sandy soils and sun. T. longipes on the other hand is very cold hardy (solid zone 4), is adaptable to part shade as well as a range of soils, but unfortunately becomes rather rangy by the time the heat of the summer roles around (as is the case with most Tradescantia). I still have yet to find a source for this. Assuming I can locate T. longipes, the two together have the potential to produce some pretty amazing children (assuming the pairing produces any viable seed).
Opuntia humifusa x Opuntia ficus-indica
I have attempted a few times to eat the fruit from our native prickly pear (O. humifusa) that I have growing in my backyard back home, but, while the little flesh that is left after carefully dissecting the oddly shapped reddish uuum, i guess you'd call it a berry?, is quite yummy and a brilliant reddish fuschia color, it's mostly spines (technically glochids) on the outside and lots of seeds on the inside. A cross with the real thing (O. ficus-indica, the cactus that produces the big prickly pears you buy at the grocery store when they feel like offering something exotic) has the potential to produce a marginally to fully cold hardy individuals (zone 5/6) with relative moisture tolerance as well as larger (relative to O. humifusa) seedless fruit.
Ruellia strepens x Ruellia humillis
The genus Ruellia has long been known in the south (R. brittoniana, R. simplex), but until recently the only species offered by the industry that can be grown in the northeast has been Ruellia humillis. Unfortunately it doesn't really perform well unless it has full unadulterated sun. Why R. strepens (which is much more shade tolerant) hasn't caught on here in the Boston area is beyond me, (but based on the bits and pieces of information that are out there it may actually be too adaptable). Again much like the C. rosea and T. longipes cross, I was hoping this union might produce a good, reliable garden performer; adaptable, but not overly so, and sterile which often equates to more blooms for us and the bees.
Sophora (Styphnolobium) japonica x Calia (Sophora) secundiflora
The likelihood that I'd ever have a chance to get my hands on both these species is pretty unlikely, and even more unlikely that its going to happen this season, not to mention that S. japonica and C. secundiflora bloom at different times (S. japonica, late summer and C. secundiflora, mid spring). While the chance this cross is possible is pretty unlikely, a cross between these 2 species could hold the potential to produce an excellent urban street tree for the south, and potentially further north. S. japonica is already used throughout the northeast as an urban tree and is, overall, a tough, long lived tree, but can sometimes become a bit too large for the confined spaces its often planted in. S. secundifolia is a southeast native evergreen large shrub/small tree (unfortunately only hardy to zone 7b), but with both amazing drought and heat tolerance and beautiful short hanging lavender/purple flower clusters akin to wisteria. The pairing could result in an astounding multi-stemmed tree, with exceptional drought and heat tolerance, just the right size for urban spaces.
Hybrid Update:
While none of my projects yielded any results last year they're all still in the works, and hopefully, given that all the material I started growing last season has all successfully overwintered, I might actually get some seed to work with this year. Even the Passiflora lutea, that did absolutely nothing for me the previous summer, has already started growing with abandon (inside of course) so hopefully I'll get some blooms from it this year. And in a serendipitous turn of events I stumbled across an article on storing Passion flower pollen this past week. Hopefully one of my projects yields some results this year (even if its just seeds).
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