What is meant by the term "seed hibiscus" ?

I bought several 'Luna' hibiscus from Lowe's this past season. The grower had listed them as "seed hibiscus" on the plant tag. Does that term signify that the plants were grown from seed or is this a classification of hibiscus varieties?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Jeremy

My guess would be that means they were grown from seed. I don't know Luna specifically, but most named cultivars won't come true from seed, so my interpretation of this would be that the seeds came from 'Luna', but since it may not come true from seed, your plant may not look like 'Luna'. Although I have to say I've never seen that type of designation on a plant tag so I could be wrong about what it means.

I believe that the Luna Hardy Hibiscus series can be grown true from seed. I have seen reference to patents pending on a couple of the Luna series seeds.

I don't think seeds get covered by patents--plant patents generally only cover asexual propagation such as cuttings, tissue culture, etc, I've never heard of one that covered sexual propagation. But it could be there are some newer ones that do this and I just hadn't heard anything about it. However, if Luna's already patented, and they're making new patents on seed-borne offspring of Luna, then that would mean that they're not the same thing as Luna so therefore it sounds to me like it doesn't come true from seed.

Jeremy - The International Hibiscus Society has a whole section on growing Hibiscus from seeds. You might find this interesting. Ed
http://www.internationalhibiscussociety.org/seed_bank_seed_raising_info.htm

Looks like Ball Seed developed them:
http://www.ballseed.com/press_release_Hibiscus.aspx

This message was edited Jan 15, 2007 6:40 PM

And last but not least everything you didn't want to know about plant patents but asked anywho:
http://www.plantpatent.com/faq.html#faq001

This message was edited Jan 15, 2007 10:02 PM

Thanks for your replies, and I greatly appreciate the website links, KingedK. Actually, I do have an interest in plant patents. I'm hoping one day, in a conjoined effort with a local DGer, BotanyGuy, who is proficient at and has the state of the art equipment for tissue culture, to develop some cultivars of my own -- probably not of hibiscus, but of some wildflowers (weeds, actually! - like Cupid's Shaving Brush - Emilia fosbergii http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/2736/index.html) that grow in my yard that I think could be selectively bred to become attractive ornamental garden plants.

Jeremy

Here's the site where I saw the patent reference: http://www.panamseed.com/award_winners.aspx

I was thinking that is referenced seed but in looking, it does appear that they are talking about patents on the plants - - not seeds.

In a nut shell, it indicated the following:
US Plant Variety Protections have been applied for:
Hibiscus Luna Pink Swirl (Balhibpsw, PPAF)
Hibiscus Luna White (Balhibwhi, PPAF)


US Patents
Hibiscus Luna Blush (Balhiblu, PP15054)
Hibiscus Luna Red (Balhibred, PP16155)