Paul Barden: Old Garden Roses and beyond

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This Web site has laid fallow since 2006, but that doesn't mean that I've been idle. I'm more interested in working with my roses than maintaining a complicated Web site. Instead, I write a blog called A Hybridizer's Journal. You'll find my most recent article reproduced below. Meanwhile, the content of this Web site, Old Garden Roses and Beyond, will remain untouched. Please visit me at my blog for the latest about my work.

From A Hybridizer's Journal: Back to Rugosa origins

26-09-04, Parentage: 'Hansa' X "Magseed". Appearance-wise this is a completely unremarkable hybrid, but I value what it represents genetically. The pollen parent was given to me by it's creator Ralph Moore years ago; a cross of 'Anytime' and 'Rugosa Magnifica'. By crossing it back to an older "purebred" Rugosa I hoped to regain some of the Rugosa strength, character and, hopefully, health while infusing some of the modern miniature traits like generosity of bloom.

Clearly this seedling is not just a selfing of 'Hansa' since it has that odd "antler" pubescence often seen in Rugosa/modern hybrids. It has yet to be seen if this cultivar has merit as a garden shrub, but I plan on working it forward with other diploid breeding lines. I see a marriage with 'Therese Bugnet' in it's future.

From A Hybridizer's Journal: Dear Mr. Google, you and I need to have a little chat.

How tedious. Yesterday I discovered that Apuldram Roses in the UK was using my photo of Austin's 'Teasing Georgia' to flog the rose on their web site. (This happens dozens of times every year, and more and more often, the offending party is a nursery using the images to sell their product! The same image was also found on the web site of Bay State Perennial Farm, who has likely by now deleted the photo, after I contacted them by phone. The attitude I got from them was five different flavors of pass-the-buck)
I sent a message to Apuldram Roses requesting the removal of the photo, as it was copyrighted work and I did not authorize their use of it. Here is the response I got from an Apuldram rep:

"Dear Paul When in need of an image (if we don't have one of our own) we regularly go to Google images. This is where we got the image and there is no mention of copyright. Perhaps you should review the uploading of your images to the internet. Apologies for the obvious distress this has caused you and we will remove the image straight away." (emphasis mine)

Did you catch that, the part about me reviewing how and what I upload to the Web??! In no uncertain terms this suggests that I am to blame for the misuse of my photo! Outrageous. Note also the remark about the apparent lack of a copyright statement in connection with the photo as presented in the Google images browser.

Google has a clear policy about the terms of use of the Google Images feature:

"Image use permissions

The images displayed in a Google Image Search may be protected by copyright, so we can't grant you the right to use them for any purpose other than viewing them on the web. If you'd like to use images from our image search, we suggest contacting the site's webmaster to obtain permission. To learn how to find the webmaster of a site, please visit http://www.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=910"

From the URL: http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?&&answer=9299

Prior to the Internet, it would have been inconceivable for a company to assemble a catalog using content that was not acquired legally and by paying for the rights to use it for marketing. Sadly, it appears that ethics are no longer regarded as an obstacle to acquiring advertising content. Here's the long and short of it: If you did not create the content, or if you did not obtain permission to use it and/or pay a fee for that usage, then its not yours to take. If you want to use it, ask. If you can't be bothered to ask, then hands off my work.

Period.

From A Hybridizer's Journal: Sabbatical

I am announcing my decision to take a sabbatical from rose hybridizing. This may in fact lead to "retirement" from the work in time; I am open to that possibility. Right now, I have ceased generating new seedlings will and spend the next two seasons evaluating what I already have. After that, who knows.

This "hobby" (for surely that is what I must call it since it doesn't pay for itself; it is a drain on my resources, both monetary and emotional) has reached a scale that is unmanageable and so I have to look very hard at what there is here and be ruthless in removing anything that does not approach perfection. (and since perfection is so very conspicuous by its absence from most roses, that ought to be easy enough) With any luck, this approach will reduce the volume of plants, and the associated work load, to a fraction of its current state. Then, and only then, will I consider resuming the making of new crosses and raising more seedlings. I may not resume at all. Only time will tell.

As regards this blog; I make no promises that I will continue to post information. I will if the mood hits me, but for the most part I will focus my energy on the work at hand: reducing my work load and hard culling of materials. Wish me luck. And thanks for reading and contributing to this blog for the past two years. It has been a pleasure engaging my readers.

Paul Barden
June 27, 2011.

For more articles in this series, see: Paul Barden Roses: A Hybridizer's Journal.