I have a set up similar to Zenmans (though MY basement is nowhere near so neat! impressive!). About six weeks before my last frost date, I start taking cuttings of salvias, tibouchina, durantas, and a few other plants that I want to overwinter. I do it as much because I cannot count on finding new plants every year as for the purpose of saving money. I start the cuttings outside under my deck benches and only bring them inside to the lights when the plants begin to show damage from cold. (It doesn't even have to frost for some things like durantas to be stressed.) I spent $10 a set for shop lights, not counting the bulbs, and bought inexpensive plastic shelving. The shelves and light units are each long enough to hold two flats. Be sure your shelves have slats or are open in some way because you want to hang the lights from chains. Using S hooks, you can then raise and lower the shoplights over your plants. (You'll want extra S hooks.) You'll notice from ZM's photo that he has his plants in trays. This prevents runoff onto the light units below. I bought cheap cookie sheets at WalMart and filled them with a layer of gravel. My basement floor has a drain in it, which is really handy. I just drag a hose into the basement once a week to water and/or feed. I learned fast that once a week water is plenty. And that regular fertilizer is very important. The cuttings are joined in late winter by seeds that I start for my beds. In my climate, if you want color in July and August, you need annuals. With advice from fellow GWers, I have gotten pretty good at the seed thing in just a couple years. Once you get your shelves set up, it's not especially time consuming to care for your babies and it's nice to have plants to work with through the winter.

Since 1995, the term of a plant patent grant in the USA is 20 years from the date of the application. The term used to be 17 years until 1995, at which time it was extended. All patents still in effect at that time were extended to 20 years from the application or 17 years from the date of issuance, which ever was longer. Using google patents is the best way to search patents in the USA. If you have the patent number, reduce to this format: PP1234 PP is plant patent. Remove any leading zeroes. If you know the breeder code, you can also search using that. Using the advanced search feature, you can search INVENTOR using first and last name of the hybridizer. Here is a link that might be useful: How do I figure out if a patent is still in force

You are confusing patent and copyright. See Mitchell v. Hawley, 16 Wall. 544, 21 L.Ed. 322, 83 U.S. 544 (1872) (hereinafter referred to as "Mitchell"): "Sales of the kind may be made by the patentee with or without conditions, as in other cases, but where the sale is absolute, and without any conditions, the rule is well settled that the purchaser may continue to use the implement or machine purchased until it is worn out, or he may repair it or improve upon it as he pleases, in same manner as if dealing with property of any other kind." In 1872, the US Supreme Court held that sales by pantent-holder with conditions (e.g. "Asexual Reproduction Probited") are absolutely binding on the purchaser and all acquiring title from the purchaser. See Diamond v. Chakrabarty, 447 U.S. 303, 100 S.Ct. 2204, 65 L.Ed.2d 144 (1980), where US Supreme Court held that "a live, human-made micro-organism is patentable subject matter under [Title 35 U.S.C.] 101." See J.E.M. Ag Supply v Pioneer Hi-Bred Int'l, 534 U.S. 124, 122 S.Ct. 593, 151 L.Ed.2d 508 (2001) (hereinafter referred to as "JEM"), where the US Suprme Court explicitly affirmed the application of § 101 to plants. In addition to § 101, in 1930 the US Congress enacted the Plant Patent Act (PPA), which made patentable the asexual reproduction of plants. The PPA was recodified in 1952, but substantively remained unchanged. Also, in 1970 the US Congress enacted the Plant Variety Protection Act (PVPA) which grants patent-like protection for certain sexually reproduced plants. To not go into granular detail here, it is sufficient to say that plants are patentable under three different regimes under US law - each affording different types and levels of protection to the patent-holder. When a patent-holder makes a sale, the sale comes with a license delineating the scope of the use of the thing the purchaser is actually buying. For example, Mitchell stands for the premise that a patent-holder could sell a machine under a license which stated that the purchaser is not entilted to repair or maintain that machine - in which case the purchaser could use the machine until it wore out, but no further. Without restricitve language accompanying the sale, the purchaser is understood to have all rights to use, maintain, and resell the property. Here, you appear to have a sale with limits on the scope of the granted license - which means absoultely no asexual reproduction - even if that measn to the ultimate detriment and demise of the plant. That said, I can't imagine a situation where a patent-holder is going to take Grandma to court for dividing her hosta, but this is quite a litigious society in which we choose to live, so who knows... I have one question: Is a hosta a tuber? I know it has rhizomes, but are all rhizomes also tubers - sort of like all squares are rectangles? Or are tubers something special - differnet from rhizomes? I ask because the PPA specifically excludes tubers from the class of protected plants. The PVPA includes two exceptions: one is for stock seed for farmers and the second is for plant breeding and fundamental research. A § 101 patent (also called a "Utility Patent" by the US Supreme Court) is the most comprehensive type of patent, but is also the most difficult patent to obtain (which is why Congress wrote the PPA and PVPA - according to the Court). At the time the Court decided JEM in 2001, "[t]he United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) ha[d only] issued some 1,800 utility patents for plants, plant parts, and seeds pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 101." So, whether or not a hosta is a tuber is a significant question with regard to enforcability of patent claims by patent-holders.

Thanks. That answers my question. Maybe some day I'll have a yard full of sabal minors from all of these seeds I now have! One other question though, should I harvest the seeds now or wait until spring? The seeds just turned black within the last week, which I assume means they're ripe?