A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Propagation Prohibited???

The label with my Christmas cactus says Propagation Prohibited. Does this mean that I'm not allowed to take cuttings? How will someone know? And will it effect the quality of my cuttings?
Thanks.

I've always wondered about that too. I think it means we can't take cuttings, grow plants from them, and sell them for profit, BUT I'm not sure.

technically, the only propagation you can do on plants that are marked that way are by pollination. (something that "might" occur any way)

but, with any plant that will "drop" it's leaves and start babies from the dropped leaves, the only way to prevent propagation would be to destroy the dropped leaves.

now, do you have a legal responsibility to do that? no. can you sell the babies that are dropped? NO. can you divide your plant to make it more suitable for you? yes.

but you can't sell the divisions or babies, and i wouldn't "label" them with the patented name if you give away a start.

plant developers spend years and major $$$ on their plants, and while potting up a baby isn't wrong, flooding (or potentially flooding) the market with the plants is.

does this help?

Thanks, that helps alot. My friend wanted some cuttings for a trade she's doing. I guess I'll just take some cuttings from my other Christmas cactus.
Thanks for the info!
Gail

I would think that sort of prohibition would be very hard to enforce on the 'give a cutting away to a friend', scale.

This is mostly to protect the patient owners rights.

I have some Blackberry plants I plan to propagate, for personnal use.

smart move