Tagging

[PHRAG]

What do you think of this?

What if a person had a species plant, that they were never going to sell or show (maybe give away), and they wanted to retag it with just the species name. For example: Phrag besseae 'Hot Red' x 'Red Hot' would be retagged as just Phrag besseae. Would this be a bad thing? Why? If one of the parents had been awarded, would this make a difference in your answer?

 

[gary]

Why not just besseae? I'll guess that you know that it is a phrag just by looking at it!

You might want to give the plant a name (even just a number) so that you can relate to any records you are keeping. For example I compare flower quality from bloom to bloom... some plants just get better with age. Also, You never know when parentage might be important to you; for example, say you have 2 unbloomed roth seedings and SO imposes a downsize order and you have to get rid of one, which would it be: 'but ugly runt' x self or 'Rex' by 'MM'?

Hope this helps,
gary

 

[PHRAG]

Is 'Butt ugly runt' a wild collected roth? : )

 

[gary]

I see you get my point! (You care enough to ask.) :rollhappy:

 

[PHRAG]

Not so. I have already started retagging my plants.

 

[Jason Fischer]

For the sake of breeding, I like to keep track of the parents. For example, the Orchid Zone besseae over the years have had distinct looks, and I like to remember what the gene pool is when I breed. So if I label a plant (a new besseae) besseae 'the best ever', underneath that I'll put down ('Smokin' x 'Haven') and the code number if it's available so I can look back at where it came from.

All the roth collectors out there are VERY persistant in asking if new seedlings have ('Rex' x 'Mt. Milais') in the background as that sib had great quality flowers.

But if it is Butt ugly, I might just clonal name it after a good friend or something

 

[PHRAG]

I guess I am just getting so tired of keeping track of info I don't find important. My plants are going to live or die with me. If in the event I need to get rid of some, I would rather give them away. In that case, the person could take them without parental info or not at all. I don't care.

Case in point:

I have several Paph philippinense. Aside from the alba's which will be pretty obvious what they are when they bloom, the rest of these paphs are a mess. I have one labeled regular phil, which I have been told has roebelinii in the parentage. I have another that is labeled roebelinii, but the foliage looks nothing like my other roebelinii. And god only knows what they will be called once they bloom. Instead of putting up with all this garbage, why don't I just rewrite the tag Paph. philippinense and be done with it?

Don't even get me started by suggesting that my plants with awarded parents are more important to note than those without. Grrrrr.

I don't blame the breeders. I blame the taxonomists and nomenclature guru's who are contstantly changing the names.

 

[Jon in SW Ohio]

I usually don't add the clones in the cross to my tag, but I tend to keep track of certain ones if I think someone may ask about it's parentage. If I really want to remember a plant I'll give it a clonal name, like my Paph. roebellenii 'Willa Klett' came from a dear departed friend and I wouldn't want to lose it amongst other roebs for sentimental reasons.

Jon
________
Silversurfer Vaporizer

 

[PHRAG]

Oh yeah, for clarification. I do plan on breeding some plants, someday if I have the space. But not for sale, for my own enjoyment. So even knowing this, I think I am done tracking other people's naming conventions. Hell, maybe I will invent my own species names for all of my plants.

So far, nobody has given a reason why I shouldn't lose the parental info that applies to me. I understand why all this might be important for someone else, I just don't know that it would affect me at all. So I think I will go ahead with it.

 

[PHRAG]

Wow Jon, you really understand what I am going for here!

But do you keep track of the parental info in a seperate place? A notebook or something? I don't want to do that either. I just want to grow my species, and call them what they are without all the headaches and worthless (to me) labeling.

 

[Jon in SW Ohio]

Typically if I have a plant with known clonal parents, it's on the tag that came with the plant. I tend to use my own tags written in pencil, as inks always manage to fade into a blank tag if left in the pot with all the light (especially if they are printed off a computer). When I repot, if I come across a vendor tag I throw it in my "tag drawer" after writing my new one. When someone asks about a plant and I don't know it off hand I'll search through the drawer.

I used to keep track of them on Excel...but that got tedius and I just kinda stopped caring enough to update it.

Jon
________
Toyota pro/celebrity race specifications

 

[Heather]

I realize you already know this, John, but I personally would not consider buying nor adopting a roth. or a phil. without the clonal information in this day and age specifically because of the reasons you hate the clonal names. It distinguises them. From my perspective, it isn't necessarily the fact that it distinguishes one roth as 'butt ugly' vs. 'rex x mm' (though I do prefer good breeding), but just one roth from another. I think it is important, when possible, to know the heritage of your plants.

As I said to John last night. I keep extremely detailed records of my plants, up until the moment they are out of my possession. If someone who purchases or adopts something from me wants any information, I will have it until I ship it. A lot of times, because of this, I can remember things about the plants but if you want specifics, ask before I ship. After that, you may be outa luck.

(Of course, being so anal, I back up my database all the time so if there was something really important, I could probably pull it off an older CD).

 

[Mark]

As someone who is interested in breeding species for conservation, it's fairly important whether two plants being mated are closely related or not. The goal is genetic diversity and not appearance so I like to keep track of which plants of mine are which and would also like to know a little about the provenance of other growers' plants that might be matched up with mine for some sweet toothpick lovin'. Plants without a name or at the very least a number could well be siblings that were the result of a selfing or sib cross and inbreeding would progress rather quickly. I've occasionally pondered/wondered if anyone had devised an application for not only keeping track of such breeding activities, but also to maintain as diverse a genepool as possible......

 

[littlefrog]

If you aren't interested in bloodlines (you probably aren't), then don't worry about it... I don't always put the clonal names of the parents on all of my species, especially seedlings. I know, pretty much, what they are, but for selling at shows and in person, if the plant is in bloom the customer doesn't really care what the parents were. I do write most of my tags by hand, so some lazyness is probably coming through.

You could of course give the plant a clonal name or number with a new tag, and keep the original tag (with the number on it) in a file (or a drawer...). Then if you ever really need to know, you can paw through all of your tags to find the information.

 

[gonewild]

They are your plants. It is your collection. Label them in whatever way makes it most pleasant and enjoyable for yourself.

You really don't need a label to know which plant is which do you? If you had 10 dogs you would not hang a sign around their necks. When you adopt an animal from the shelter you don't get a "label" with the new pet. If your not concerned with maintaining a monetary value then the labels do not matter.

On the other hand, if you have or acquire a species that is from a wild population (F1?) you should consider labeling it as such. I suggest this based on what you've said in the past about your interest in preserving specie populations.

If it's a hobby, do what puts a smile on your face.