U.S. patent number PP33,132 [Application Number 16/350,548] was granted by the patent office on 2021-06-01 for monarda plant named `leading lady orchid`.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Walters Gardens, Inc. The grantee listed for this patent is Hans A Hansen. Invention is credited to Hans A Hansen.
United States Patent |
PP33,132 |
Hansen |
June 1, 2021 |
Monarda plant named `Leading Lady Orchid`
Abstract
The new and distinct cultivar of ornamental cultivar of hybrid
ornamental Bee Balm plant named Monarda `Leading Lady Orchid` with
slightly-glossy, powdery mildew-tolerant foliage, flower heads of
magenta-pink flowers with lower petals accented by dark fuchsia
spotting, each globular head subtended by wine-colored bracts.
Flowering in dense verticils beginning about two weeks earlier than
typical Monarda didyma cultivars. Flowers of side branches
stretching above initial globular heads extends the fresh
appearance over along period. The plant habit is short, compact and
winter-hardy, useful in the landscape as a specimen, en masse, or
as a containerized plant.
Inventors: |
Hansen; Hans A (Zeeland,
MI) |
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Hansen; Hans A |
Zeeland |
MI |
US |
|
|
Assignee: |
Walters Gardens, Inc (Zeeland,
MI)
|
Family
ID: |
73649982 |
Appl.
No.: |
16/350,548 |
Filed: |
November 30, 2018 |
Prior Publication Data
|
|
|
|
Document
Identifier |
Publication Date |
|
US 20200390016 P1 |
Dec 10, 2020 |
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
PLT/455 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A01H
6/14 (20180501) |
Current International
Class: |
A01H
5/02 (20180101); A01H 6/50 (20180101); A01H
6/14 (20180101) |
Field of
Search: |
;PLT/263.1,455 |
Primary Examiner: McCormick Ewoldt; Susan
Assistant Examiner: Redden; Karen M
Claims
I claim:
1. A new and distinct cultivar of hybrid ornamental Bee Balm plant,
Monarda `Leading Lady Orchid`, as herein described and illustrated.
Description
Botanical designation and cultivar denomination:
Botanical classification: Monarda hybrid.
Variety denomination: `Leading Lady Orchid`.
STATEMENT REGARDING PRIOR DISCLOSURES UNDER 37 CFR 1.77(B)(6)
The first public disclosure of the claimed plant, in the form of a
sale, was made by Walters Gardens, Inc. on Jul. 16, 2018. Prior to
that, on Dec. 1, 2017 the claimed plant was displayed with a
photograph and brief description in a website operated by Walters
Gardens, Inc., who obtained the plant and all information relating
thereto, from the inventor. No plants of Monarda `Leading Lady
Orchid` have been sold, in this country or anywhere in the world,
nor has any disclosure of the new plant been made, more than one
year prior the filing date of this application, and such sale or
disclosure within one year was either derived directly or
indirectly from the inventor.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the new and distinct cultivar of
Bee balm, botanically known as Monarda `Leading Lady Orchid`, and
hereinafter also referred to solely by the cultivar `Leading Lady
Orchid` or the "new plant." Monarda `Leading Lady Orchid` was the
result of a controlled insect pollination in the summer of 2012 in
an isolation block at a wholesale perennial nursery in Zeeland,
Mich., USA. The female parent is a proprietary didyma times
bradburiana hybrid known as H10-26-09 and the specific male parent
is unknown but would have been a sibling with the same parentage.
The new plant was separated out for further evaluation in the
summer of 2014 in the full sun trial gardens of the same nursery
and assigned the breeder code 12-59-8. The new plant is the result
of a planned breeding program of the inventor to produce new colors
of flowers with superior mildew resistance, and improved compact
habit. The new plant has been asexually propagated since 2015 by
stem cuttings at the same nursery in the greenhouses in Zeeland,
Mich., and the subsequent generations of asexually propagated
plants found to be stable and identical to the original
selection.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE PLANT
Monarda `Leading Lady Orchid` is unique from its parents and all
other Bee Balm plants known to the inventor. The nearest comparison
cultivars known to the inventor are `Leading Lady Plum` U.S. Plant
Pat. No. 26,447 and `Leading Lady Lilac` U.S. Plant Pat. No.
26,431. `Leading Lady Lilac` has lighter flowers of a lilac-purple
color. `Leading Lady Plum` has flowers of a more magenta-purple
color. The female parent has similar darker reddish-purple accent
spots in the flower like that of Monarda `Leading Lady Orchid`, but
it is lighter in background petal color and is more spreading and
taller in habit than the new plant. All of the potential male
parents have spotted petals with a lighter lilac-color.
The new plant Monarda `Leading Lady Orchid` is distinct from all
Bee Balm plants known to the inventor. The following are traits of
Monarda `Leading Lady Orchid` that in combination distinguish it
from all other Bee balm known to the inventor: 1. Dark-green,
slightly-glossy, powdery mildew-tolerant foliage. 2. Short,
compact, clumping, winter-hardy habit. 3. Compact, magenta-pink
flowers for a long period beginning late spring, at least two weeks
earlier than typical Monarda didyma cultivars. 4. Inside of lower
flower petals accented by rows of darker fuchsia spots. 5. Flowers
in dense verticils with side branches flowering above initial
flowers providing fresh flowering appearance.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The photographs of the new plant demonstrate the unique traits of
Monarda `Leading Lady Orchid` and the overall appearance of the
plant at two-years old in the full sun trial garden of a nursery in
Zeeland, Mich. The colors are as accurate as reasonably possible
with color reproductions. Variation in ambient light spectrum,
source and direction may cause the appearance of minor variation in
color.
FIG. 1 shows the habit of the new plant in flower.
FIG. 2 shows a close-up of the flower of the new plant.
DETAILED BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION
The following descriptions and color references are based on the
2015 edition of The Royal Horticultural Society Colour Chart except
where common dictionary terms are used. Monarda `Leading Lady
Orchid` has not been observed under all possible environments. The
phenotype may vary slightly with different growing environments
such as temperature, light, fertility, soil pH, moisture and
maturity levels, but without any change in the genotype. The
following observations and size descriptions are based on
two-year-old, full-sun, trial garden-grown plants and greenhouse
grown plants at a nursery in Zeeland, Mich. with limited
supplemental fertilizer and water as needed but without plant
growth regulators or pinching. Botanical classification: Monarda
didyma x Monarda bradburiana; Parentage: The female (seed) parent
is H10-26-09, an unreleased proprietary selection of Monarda didyma
times M. bradburiana; the male (pollen) parent is an unknown,
unreleased, proprietary sibling of the female parent; Plant habit:
Hardy herbaceous perennial, compact, producing multiple stems
spreading by short rhizomes near the base of the stems; foliage up
to 26.0 cm tall, flowering to 35.0 cm tall and wide; flowering
begins late spring in Michigan and continuing for about 5 to 9
weeks; Propagation: Stem cuttings; Time to produce finished crop in
3.8 liter pots: About 7 to 9 weeks; moderate rate of growth; Root:
Fine, fibrous and freely branching; color creamy white to tan
depending on soil type; Leaves: Simple; lanceolate; opposite;
margin serrated and ciliolate; puberulent above and below; lustrous
above, semi-lustrous to matte below; acute apex; cordate to rounded
base; to about 9.0 cm long and 4.0 cm wide, average about 6.8 cm
long and 3:5 cm wide; Leaf color: Young expanding leaves adaxial
nearest RHS 137B with blush of nearest RHS N186C, abaxial nearest
RHS 147C; older leaves adaxial blend between RHS 139A and RHS 137A
and abaxial nearest RHS 147B below; Foliage fragrance: Pleasant
herbal; Veins: Pinnate; pubescent abaxial with glabrous above,
slightly sunken above and raised below; Vein color: Adaxial midrib
nearest RHS 145C, lateral pinnate veins nearest RHS 145B and
secondary veins nearest RHS 137A; abaxial midrib nearest RHS 145C
with lateral pinnate veins nearest RHS 146D and secondary veins
nearest RHS 137B; Petiole: Pubescent, slightly concaved above; to
about 5.0 mm long and 3.0 mm across at base; Petiole color: Adaxial
nearest RHS 146C and abaxial nearest RHS 146D; Stems: Quadrangular;
puberulent; about 4.0 mm across at base; about 40 per plant;
naturally branched at upper nodes; average 1.7 cm between nodes
greater distally; 15 to 18 nodes per stem; average length about 28
cm; Stem color: Nearest RHS 146A; Flowers: Single labiate flowers
arranged in mostly terminal verticils forming globular head about
7.0 cm across and 4.0 cm tall opening from the center and
progressing outwardly and down; attitude upwardly to outwardly;
individual flowers to about 39.0 mm long to exserted stigma and
about 5.0 mm across; individual flowers persisting about 5 days in
Michigan; numerous, about 200 flowers per terminal head, fewer per
axillary head; Flower fragrance: Moderately spicy; Buds one to two
days prior to opening: Narrowly oblanceolate, arcuate downward;
about 22.5 mm long and 3.0 mm across and 5.5 mm tall; between RHS
NN74C and RHS N74C in the middle and dorsal distal region lighter
than RHS N74D; Petals: Labiate; arcuate downward; base fused into
tube; split in two in the distal 1.2 cm with upper lip fused into a
hood about 30.0 mm long and 3.0 mm across; lower lip about 35.0 mm
long comprising three lobes including two side lobes about 1.0 mm
long with rounded apex and center lobe about 4.5 mm long bifid in
the distal 1.0 mm; both petals glandular and pubescent on outer
surfaces with fine hairs the same color as petals, both petals
glabrous on inner surfaces; self-cleaning; Petal color: Upper hood
petal on both abaxial and adaxial surfaces between RHS N74C and RHS
NN74C lightening with maturity to lighter than RHS NN74D; lower
petal adaxial and abaxial between RHS 75D and RHS NN74D with spots
in the strips about 0.5 mm diameter of nearest RHS 71A; fused
corolla tube abaxial between RHS N74C and RHS NN74C with basal 5.0
mm nearest RHS 155B, adaxial nearest RHS 75C with basal 5.0 mm
nearest RHS 155B; Filaments: Two, curved downward, about 1.4 cm
long by 0.5 mm diameter fused to petal about 1.4 cm from base;
color nearest RHS 76B; Anther: Oblong elliptic, dorsifixed,
longitudinal; 2.2 mm long by 1.0 mm wide; color nearest RHS N186A;
Pollen: Abundant, elliptic to globose, less than 0.1 mm; color
nearest RHS 18A; Pistil: One per flower; protruding about 7.0 mm
beyond upper petal when mature; Style: About 3.8 cm long and less
than 0.5 mm diameter; color nearest RHS 76A distally and base
nearest RHS NN155D; Stigma: Bifid in the distal 2.0 mm; about 0.2
mm in diameter; color nearest RHS 76A; Ovary: About 1.0 mm across
by 0.7 mm tall; color between RHS 143D and RHS 144B; Sepals: Five,
apiculate apex; base fused forming calyx tube; margin ciliolate;
about 10.0 mm long and 2.0 mm diameter, fused in basal 8.0 mm to
form a tube; glandular abaxial surface and glabrous adaxial;
persistent; Sepal color: Adaxial and abaxial distal two-thirds
between RHS N186D and RHS 187C, both adaxial and abaxial base
nearest RHS 139C; Foliar bracts: Usually two rows of six each in
number; below verticils; lanceolate distal row and ovate to deltoid
proximal row; apex acuminate to acute; base sessile, truncate;
margin entire; adaxial glabrous, abaxial puberulent; lower row of
bracts about 18.0 mm long and 15.0 mm wide at base; upper row of
bracts, about 14.0 mm long and 4.5 mm wide; Foliar bract color:
Color of both rows similar, adaxial and abaxial variable with both
nearest RHS N186D and RHS 139A; Peduncle: Pubescent, stiff, strong,
erect, squared in cross-section to about 0.4 cm across and average
28 cm long; about 30 per plant; naturally branched at nodes;
average 1.7 cm between nodes; 15 to 18 nodes per stem; Peduncle
color: Between RHS 146A and RHS 146B; Pedicel: About 1.0 mm long
and 0.5 mm diameter; color nearest RHS 145B; Fruit: Single nutlet,
elliptical, about 1.3 mm long and 0.7 mm wide; color nearest RHS
200C; Hardiness: The new plant grows best with plenty of moisture
and adequate drainage; hardy to at least from USDA zone 4 through
8. Disease and pest resistance: Demonstrated greater than average
powdery mildew tolerance in side by side comparison with other
Monarda.
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