Keeping Delosperma in containers outdoors?

[JungleMel]

I bought a large clump of Delosperma 'P001s'/'Fire Spinner' at a garden center the other day and had a few questions about keeping it over the winter outdoors in zone 6b. This one has a growing zone range of zones 5-10.

I am moving by 2013 and want to be able to take this guy with me. Can I keep it in a container over the winter here or are the zones only applicable to growing it in the ground? Or am I better off just planting it and taking cuttings when I move, or taking cuttings now and growing some indoors just in case?

[iann]

P001S? A borderline illegitimate cultivar name, or possibly just a working name, All part of the bizarre world of horticultural intellectual property rights in the 21st century. Fire Spinner is actually not a cultivar name but a trademark, easier to protect. Even more strange since the plant is just a wild collection that should probably get a proper species name instead.

Anyway, you can certainly grow Delospermas in pots although this is a vigorous one and will do far better in the ground. Be prepared to water them nearly as much as a regular plant in the summer although they will obviously take short periods of being dry with no real harm. Keep it dry in very cold weather for maximum hardiness but getting rained on occasionally in winter, or even snowed on, won't be a problem. As always with containers, watch out for them freezing solid and breaking the container, and remember that plants in containers are a zone or two less hardy than those in the ground.

Cuttings of this are very easy although. There don't appear to be Plant Breeder's Rights for this plant but it would be illegal to use the name "Fire Spinner" for anything you propagated from it.

[JungleMel]

I had read that too, that it is an unnamed species. Cool, I wonder when it will end up being named? How exactly do you trademark a name for something that is actually a species though?

I'd obviously like it to do well, but I don't know when exactly I'll be moving and it will probably be very last minute. So from what you are saying it should be fine kept on the dry side in a container here through the winter. It would be 1000x times easier for me that way, than trying to dig it up and move it later, so thanks for the good news!

[iann]

I had read that too, that it is an unnamed species. Cool, I wonder when it will end up being named? How exactly do you trademark a name for something that is actually a species though?

That's the whole point. You can trademark anything since it is just a word. The process is simple, the court procedures to back it up are well-established, and nobody else can use that word to describe the same or a similar product. That way you don't have to try and establish any rights to the plant itself, which in this case would be very difficult because anybody could claim they just went to a mountain in South Africa and got their own.

[Saxicola]

I had read that too, that it is an unnamed species. Cool, I wonder when it will end up being named? How exactly do you trademark a name for something that is actually a species though?

I'm sure it was presented as some sort of nursery selection to the trademark office. If someone wanted to challenge it with the trademark office they probably could win, First though the plant would need to be properly described as a new species to help show that they aren't just dealing with a special selection of a species, but the species itself.

I found an interesting article online about this subject. I gather that the vast majority of trademarked plant names would be invalidated if taken to court, but who wants to spend the money to do it?

http://www.plantdelights.com/Trademarks ... ducts/534/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[JungleMel]

Thank you for the information, that article in particular was more interesting than I thought it would be and totally answered my questions. I don't know much about patent law, but I see why they do this all the time with plants...$$$. I hope someone cares enough to do the paperwork and write it up as a species, if it is one. It's fantastic looking even without blooms yet.

From now on I will refer to it as Delosperma 'P001S' in the mean time. "Fire Spinner (TM)" sucks.