'The propagation of this plant without a licence is forbidden'; so reads the label on a rose I bought today for a relative's 90th birthday tomorrow. I don't believe she reads this blog so I think I am safe in disclosing this.
Could there be a better example of the crazy lengths to which capitalism will go than to try to regulate a plant's propagation? Apart from the fact that the plant can't read, so won't know that it is in breach of the grower's intellectual property rights as it does what comes naturally, flowering and fruiting to reproduce itself, would they make criminals of every gardener who knows how to cut and graft, and goes forth on expeditions to other gardens with secateurs, rooting powder and plastic bags?
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