Unregistered hybrids
 

In my collection, there are a large number of unregistered hybrids. It is an annoyance when writing new labels, and a direct problem if I want to use one of those plants for breeding, since the RHS Registrar only accepts new registrations, if both parents are registered.

Many of the breeders in Asia do not bother to register their crosses, so I have plants that have bloomed for 5-10 years, but are not registered yet. Admittedly, I have also come across a few cases, where a plant very belatedly is registered.

The RHS Registrar wants the names of both the originator, and whoever is registering the grex. If not the same, you should have the originators permission to name the grex. However, he does acccept 'unknown' for the originator, if you make a legitimate effort to track down the origins of a plant, but are unable to find the originator.

What would you consider a reasonable time frame, to allow the originator to register a grex?

I have done that before - requesting permission of the originator - with about 4-6 weeks of waiting time.

I have never waited for them to register one, as if they had intended to do so, they likely would have.

A friend who was a breeder several times pointed out to me crosses he'd made that other people had registered. Sometimes they asked him for permission, sometimes they just did it. He was never upset about it, and seemed to feel the way Ray does - that he could have registered it and didn't, so he had no right to complain that someone else did.

Steve

Steve is correct. If you make ALL reasonable efforts to contact the hybridist & they give you permission OR refuse to communicate with you, you can supply all info to the RHS & register the cross. Many growers don't worry, they just say breeder unknown & register the cross. Its happened to me twice. RHS, sorry, bad luck.

In the good old days there was a reasonable expectation, that the seller was either the breeder, or at most one step removed from the breeder. Today that is no longer the case, in particular for Paphs (originating in Taiwan) & Vandaceous (originating in Thailand).

Guess that I just have to do what I need to do.