The Major Benefits of Plant Trials for UK Gardeners

With the permanently unstable UK climate, growing and breeding plants can be a serious challenge. Passionate gardeners find it hard to develop new varieties. Their attempts either happen to fail from the start, or the desired features don't last with the next plants generation. In this situation, only expert horticulturists can help.

If you contact a horticulturist or for plant expert UK services, then you will be told about plant trials. These are meant to test the new plant's overall health as well as its weather endurance. In other words, the expert will assess whether it is fit for the climate or not. If you are experimenting with several varieties of the same plant and are unsure of which is better, take them all to a plant trial. It will indicate which is the more suitable for further development.

As plants are being grow side by side in a trial, experts can compare these. It is a vital step in having a variety recognised as such. This is because legitimate new varieties must be proven as uniform and distinct when compared to the rest of the species. Each individual plant is supposed to show the same features – only then we may talk about a new kind.

If a breeder brings their plants to a nursery, it isn't the same as a trial. These two are very different. However, plants in a nursery can be moved to a trial area. The latter also represents a great opportunity for people to learn more about plant growth and breeding. The comparison process is especially effective and concluding.

If a new plant variety is performing well in a trial, it can be given an award. Also, its creator may be given the green light to register and license it. This signifies that its breeder has the rights of distribution and sale. They can participate in gardening and sales events and so on. Plants trials are invaluable in taking horticulture efforts further. All the given information is valid in the case of both edible and ornamental crops.

How New Plant Breeding Helps You and the Community

Breeding plants to create new varieties is more than just a hobby. It can bring immense satisfaction to the gardener or horticulturist. Anyone happening to create a new and distinct variety of flowers, herbs, vegetables, shrubs etc. can name it and have it licensed. This will not only make them known among horticulturists, but will also help them make a profit through selling the newly created type.

If the plant variety you worked on has an esthetic value, it can become popular on the market. People are always searching for something new to grow in their garden and beautify them. Your creation could find its place in home gardens or recreational grounds.

On the other hand, if your breeding process is focused on improving vegetables, cereals etc., then it will benefit the community in different ways. For example, a gardener improves a certain type of vegetable by making it more resistant to pests and able to thrive in a given climate. This improves the yields as well. The agricultural sector will then be interested in this new variety and may want to replace old plant types with the new and better one.

Plant breeding can enrich lives and improve the standard of living in wonderful ways. To get there, it is essential to know how to facilitate breeding. To ensure the much needed stability of the variety, one may go to a private nursery or, should they own one, invite the expert to see it. With the experts' guidance, gardeners can also work with local schools or kindergartens and other community groups to setup educational projects.

Children for example can learn about growing plants by cultivating in small gardens and adults can learn about the benefits of organic green food by trying these themselves. Through a Nuevosol plant kind of experiment, people can be seduced by “bio' gardens with edible plants. The Nuevosol concept is connected to organic gardens and home raised food. It comes with a solid educational potential. Should such activities be organized, the participating individuals will learn at the same time how to have an esthetically pleasing garden, too.

The Importance of New Plant Variety Examination by Experts

The excitement is soaring as you see you have developed a plant with new and improved characteristics, or different than the rest in its species, be it esthetically or through its yield and performance. One plant of a new kind is not enough, though.

Plant breeders know that, in order for such experiments to be successful, certain conditions must be met. First of all, the plants need to be able to survive and thrive in the region they are to be cultivated in. Secondly, each new offspring must exhibit the same traits as the parent plant, thus ensuring the much needed uniformity for the new variety. Finally, these newly acquired traits must be stable in every individual plant and generation in order to be considered a distinct variety.

As you look at all the criteria to be met, things don't look so easy anymore. Gardeners should thus work closely with a plant specialist to reach success. This should be a qualified horticulture expert who is also fully insured. They should own a private nursery and also be able to cater to plant trials to ensure the uniformity and stability of new plant varieties. Horticulturist can breed your plants in trial areas, where they are first of all tested for resistance in the given environment. Then, they will observe the plant development and all the features that make yours distinct. As they grow more similar plants at once, they can make effective comparisons.

This is the surest way to move forward and have a unique plant variety bearing your signature. You can have it certified as such and choose its denomination. Ultimately, your plant breeder specialist can take you through every step of plant licensing. Your variety will thus be protected by law and you can begin to market and sell it – either to people who want more beautiful gardens for their homes or for agriculture experts aiming to improve crops. Expert services are thus a must when you want to protect your varieties and make a profit.

How Can Gardeners Ensure the Uniformity of a New Plant Variety?

Gardeners with plant breeding knowledge and skills can develop distinct varieties as they choose features to improve, or new combinations of plant features; this can be done through methods like grafting or budding. If they do succeed in obtaining a plant that is different, then they must walk the long path of having it recognised as such.

If your ultimate goal is to have your variety licensed, then you must be able to prove that you created more individual plants that exhibit the same characteristics. It can be about esthetics or about improved yielding, superior resistance and so on. You must be able to generate many such specimens, all to exhibit the same desired traits. This means the variety is uniform. Also, the traits must be perpetuated, meaning that every plant offspring will have to be the same.

There is one way to show that your newly bred plants are uniform. Take them to plant trials, where the distinct varieties are growing side by side for comparisons. A plant trial is like a test site. It can serve multiple purposes; these also ensure that gardeners can choose plants which are more suitable to the climate they're in and will perform well in the given weather and soil conditions. Trials are usually available within universities, but are also found with local horticulture experts and private plant breeding companies.

As flowers and vegetables grow in plant trials, they are deemed either suitable or unfit for the region's climate and soil. They can be observed through their entire life cycle to assess the stability of the new traits. Should this succeed and every individual plant retain the engineered characteristics, then you may call it a uniform variety. This is one of the basic criteria for licensing or patenting.

Uniformity, along with stability and distinctiveness, can pave the way to recognition. You will be able to apply for plant protection, choose a denomination for it and benefit of so-called intellectual property rights.

In a plant trial, you can actually have the opportunity to grow multiple varieties of the same plant and compare them. Before you go to a plant trial, you may want to bring your varieties to a nursery first. However, you may still do this at home or in a breeder's garden or greenhouse.

New Plant Varieties – How Can You License and Protect Yours?

Gardening enthusiasts and plant breeders love working on new plant varieties which are better, stronger, more adaptable, producing superior crops or simply being more beautiful or different in some way. It is not enough, however, to have a single plant specimen to exhibit new features. You need to accomplish more before you think of protecting and licensing a new plant variety.

Plant protection is granted when certain criteria are met: the variety must be new, uniform and distinct. Also, it must present itself as stable (does not change with new generations or new plants; the traits stay the same over time). In addition, there are several formalities to comply with. Another important criterion is connected to plant distribution. In the end, one must also choose the denomination for the new variety and it must be a suitable one.

If the technical criteria mentioned above is unclear or is not met as expected, then the gardener may opt for professional breeder services. An expert horticulturist can help them develop the new variety in accordance with their plan: the features or improvements they want to see in the new plant. The horticulturist can apply the breeding methods correctly and also control the environment in order to help the plants become stable.

The authority concerned with new plant variety protection is the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants. Check the UPOV website for more information. This can get you the Plant Breeder's Right or the PRB. Thus, your variety is protected and it can't be exploited unless you give your consent. Unless you have obtained this, you cannot market and sell your plants as a new variety. Once you have, however, it will help you get the recognition you deserve and promote your creation as desired, with the prospects of great success. After all, it's the new plant varieties that are sought after to improve gardens and to make agriculture provide more.

The application system is the same for all the countries that are UPOV members. Note that a newly made variety has to be inspected by a UPOV member beforehand.

Successful New Plant Variety Sales: Expert Advice for Gardeners

If you have a passion for breeding plants and experimenting with their features, then you must be dreaming of creating a new variety that could bring you recognition and, possibly, a fortune. It is a long way to go though, which is why you may be in need of tips from veteran gardeners.

About patenting

Patenting is the first and most important part of new plant marketing – in fact, it is compulsory if you ever want to get to that stage. Patenting or licensing will get you the recognition you deserve and draw the public's attention to what you are selling. Know your plant – its different features and its strengths especially; you will be promoting these. But first of all, you need to be able to constantly produce plants to exhibit the same features, because a new variety needs uniformity and consistence. Only then you can attempt to have it recognized as such. Professional plant breeders may know all about patenting and help you out in order to protect and promote your variety.

Using plant trials and nurseries

This is another essential part. Your own garden may not be enough to develop and observe the traits in a new plant variety, especially if it happens to be a season with unpredictable or unusual weather. Ask horticulturists about plant trials and benefit of the controlled environment of a plant nursery, where variety uniformity is obtained far easier.

Tips for plant sales and other events

People are mostly looking for plants that will beautify their garden, something that is different from what usually grows in the area but looks well next to it. Everyone wants to bring at home something unique or special. If you are producing vegetables or herbs, a different criterion applies. Then you need find out which are the species of interest in your community. You may have a look at what the locals are growing in their gardens – perhaps they want improved plants that can offer them a better harvest.

Join a community organisation or a garden club. These usually have sponsors and it will be a lot easier to get into plant sales events. Once you start participating at such events, bring plants that are not yet in bloom. This is an important aspect. Customers may like to see flowers in bloom, but once these are transplanted into their garden, they will suffer a 'shock' and the petals will wilt. The client will thus be disappointed.