Every so often, I’ll buy a potted bromeliad – for a black thumb like me, they’re very easy to maintain.
A few days ago, I bought a bromeliad at a local garden center. On the rear of the plastic stake containing information about the plant, there were very stern warnings in several languages, the English reading:
PROPAGATION IS PROHIBITED
So … why can’t I propagate a bromeliad?
Someone else wants to make money propogating them and they don’t want the competition?
See http://bsi.org/main.htm and http://fcbs.org/ for two organizations I found with Google which promote bromeliad propogation.
Cultivated varieties of plants can be patented for 17 or 20 years, and while the patent is valid unauthorized propagation is prohibited.
What if the plant repruces itself.
Are you legally obliged to kill the offspring rather than ‘plant it out’?
Do they mean propogation for commercial means?
It is mostly for commercial propagation, greenhouses and nurseries can purchase the rights to propagate patented varieties, If you haven’t purchased the rights and are busted selling patented varieties, you can get into trouble. Propagation of patented plants by the average person isn’t going to get you in any trouble, at least I haven’t heard of anyone getting busted. It would be very hard to enforce. Just don’t try and sell any! 