U.S. patent number PP33,315 [Application Number 16/974,228] was granted by the patent office on 2021-08-03 for phlox plant named `rose quartz`.
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 |
PP33,315 |
Hansen |
August 3, 2021 |
Phlox plant named `Rose Quartz`
Abstract
A unique cultivar of Hybrid Creeping Phlox named `Rose Quartz`
characterized by vigorous, dense, spreading, multi-stemmed,
winter-hardy habit with short, bright-green, shiny, linear leaves.
Small flowers begin in mid-spring and continuing for up to six
weeks in cooler weather conditions, on heavily-branched peduncles
and completely cover the plant in peak season. Petals are rose-pink
with a lighter center and a moderate notch and the tips of the
petals. The new plant is able to withstand dry conditions once
established, and the foliage stays clean and resists mildew. The
new plant is especially suitable for the landscape as a potted
plant and in the garden as a specimen or en masse.
Inventors: |
Hansen; Hans A (Zeeland,
MI) |
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Hansen; Hans A |
Zeeland |
MI |
US |
|
|
Assignee: |
Walters Gardens, Inc (Zeeland,
MI)
|
Appl.
No.: |
16/974,228 |
Filed: |
November 19, 2020 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
PLT/320 |
Current International
Class: |
A01H
5/02 (20180101); A01H 6/70 (20180101) |
Field of
Search: |
;PLT/320 |
Other References
North Branch Nursery, Inc. Perennial Inventory Sep. 16, 2020,
retrieved on Mar. 15, 2021, retrieved from the Internet at
http://www.northbranchnursery.com/wp-content/uploads/perennial.pdf,
pp. 1 and 31. (Year: 2020). cited by examiner.
|
Primary Examiner: Hwu; June
Claims
I claim:
1. A new and distinct cultivar of Hybrid Creeping Phlox, Phlox
plant named `Rose Quartz`, as herein described and illustrated.
Description
Botanical classification: Phlox hybrid.
Variety denomination: `Rose Quartz`.
STATEMENT REGARDING PRIOR DISCLOSURES UNDER 37 CFR 1.77(B)(6)
The first non-enabling disclosure of the claimed plant, in the form
of a photograph and brief description on a website operated by
Walters Gardens, Inc. on Dec. 1, 2019. Subsequently, the new plant
was advertised in the "Walters Gardens 20-21 Catalog" by Walters
Gardens, Inc. released on May 20, 2020. The claimed plant was first
sold to Pleasant View Gardens/Proven Winners.RTM. on Jun. 15, 2020
by Walters Gardens, Inc., who obtained the plant and all
information relating thereto, from the inventor. No plants of Phlox
`Rose Quartz` 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 to 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 a new and distinct cultivar of
Creeping Phlox plant known as Phlox `Rose Quartz` and will be
referred to hereafter by its cultivar name, `Rose Quartz`, or the
"new plant". The new plant was hybridized by the inventor at a
wholesale perennial nursery in Zeeland, Mich. on Apr. 27, 2015 as a
cross between Phlox subulata `Drummond's Pink` (not patented) as
the female or seed parent and the proprietary, unreleased, hybrid
known by the breeder code 14-260-5 (not patented) as the male or
pollen parent. The new plant passed initial evaluation on the
spring of 2017 and was assigned the breeder code 15-130-1 through
the remaining evaluation process. `Rose Quartz` was first asexually
propagated by stem cuttings in the greenhouses at the same nursery
in Zeeland, Mich. in the summer of 2017. The unique characteristics
of the new plant have been found to be reproducible and stable in
successive generations of asexually propagated plants, and the
resultant plants have been found to be identical to the original
selection.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE PLANT
Phlox `Rose Quartz` is unique from all other Creeping Phlox known
to the inventor. The nearest comparison plants known to the
inventor include: the female and male parents, `Ruby Riot`
copending U.S. Plant patent application Ser. No. 16/974,227, `Pink
Sprinkles` copending U.S. Plant patent application Ser. No.
16/974,294, `Majestic Magenta` U.S. Plant patent application Ser.
No. 16/974,098 `Barseventyfour` U.S. Plant Pat. No. 23,564 and
`Rocky Road Magenta` U.S. Plant Pat. No. 31,485. The female parent,
`Drummond's Pink`, has lighter pink flowers with rounded rather
than emarginate petal apices. The male parent, 14-260-5, has flower
petals that are more notched in the apex, the flower color is more
lavender, the habit is taller, and the leaves broader. `Ruby Riot`
has a similar habit with flowers of reddish-pink and darker eyes.
`Pink Sprinkles` has larger flowers that are lighter baby pink in
color. `Majestic Magenta` has flowers that are more purplish-red
hue. `Barseventyfour` has a similar flower color, but the backs of
the flowers and the front eye are darker. `Rocky Road Magenta` has
a smaller habit with slower spreading growth rate and the flowers
vibrant magenta-purple flowers with small dark-purple eye.
Phlox `Rose Quartz` differs from all other Phlox known to the
inventor in the following repeatedly observed traits in
combination: 1. Semi-vigorous plants of dense spreading habit,
spreading by rooting stems, producing short, clean, bright-green,
shiny, linear leaves; 2. Multiple heavily-branched stems produce
branched panicles; 3. Flower beginning in mid-spring and continuing
for up to six weeks, in cool conditions, completely covering plant
at peak flowering; 4. Large flowers of rose-pink developing lighter
eye and with moderate notches at the tip of the petals; 5. Plant is
able to withstand dry conditions once established.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The photographs of the new plant demonstrate the unique traits of
Phlox `Rose Quartz` and the overall appearance of the plant at
two-years-old growing in a full-sun trial garden in Zeeland, Mich.
The colors in the drawings 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 a landscape habit view of the new plant in peak
flower.
FIG. 2 shows a close-up of the flowers.
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. Phlox `Rose Quartz` 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 plants
in a partially shaded greenhouse or a full-sun trial garden of a
wholesale perennial nursery in Zeeland, Mich. with supplemental
fertilizer and water as needed. Botanical classification: Phlox
hybrid; Parentage: Female or seed parent is Phlox subulata
`Drummond's Pink`, male or pollen parent is 14-260-5 which is a
cross between Phlox bifida `Topnotch` (not patented) and a
proprietary selection of Phlox x procumbens (not patented); Plant
habit: Winter-hardy, evergreen herbaceous perennial; short, dense,
producing about 50 stiff, highly-branched prostrate stems; foliage
and stems to 16.0 cm tall and 48.0 cm wide; flowering to 19.0 cm
tall and 52.0 cm wide; Propagation: Stem cuttings; rooting in about
2 weeks; Time to produce finished crop in 3.8 liter pots: About 10
to 12 weeks; vigorous; Root: Fibrous and freely branching; color
creamy white to tan depending on soil type; Leaves: Simple;
opposite; linear to subulate; apex narrowly acute to apiculate;
base truncate, clasping; margin ciliolate; glabrous and moderately
lustrous both adaxial and abaxial; to about 25.0 mm long by about
2.5 mm wide and 0.3 mm thick at base, average about 22.5 mm long
and 2.0 mm wide and 0.3 mm thick at base; Leaf color: Adaxial
expanding nearest RHS 138A and mature adaxial nearest RHS 137A,
abaxial expanding nearest RHS 146B and mature abaxial nearest RHS
137A; winter adaxial color variable, proximally and portions
protected from strong sun nearest RHS 137C and distally where
exposed to high sun nearest a blend between RHS 187A and RHS 182C;
winter abaxial color variable, in portions not exposed to high sun
nearest a blend between RHS 137C and RHS 146C and where exposed to
high sun nearest RHS 137C with light blush of nearest RHS 187A;
Foliage fragrance: None detected; Veins: Pinnate; not conspicuous
adaxial and abaxial; Vein color: Same color as surrounding leaf;
Petiole: Leaves sessile; Stems: Cylindrical; flexible; wiry;
prostrate; puberulent when expanding; highly compound branching; to
about 68.0 mm long and 2.0 mm diameter near base; Stem color: Young
expanding stems nearest RHS 145C, proximal and older stems nearest
RHS 156B; Nodes: About 5.0 mm apart proximally; distally about 1.0
mm apart; Node color: Color nearest RHS 156B proximally and nearest
RHS 145B distally; Inflorescence: Upright to outwardly; about 3.5
cm long and 5.3 cm wide; average of 3.5 flowers; Flowers: Perfect;
salverform; mostly flat faced; about 25.0 mm across face and 15.0
mm long; with fused corolla tube about 14.0 mm long and 2.5 mm
diameter near face and 2.0 mm diameter at base; Flower aspect:
Upright to outwardly; Flower longevity: About 5 days on plant;
self-cleaning; Flower fragrance: Not detected; Buds one to two days
prior to opening: Narrowly oblanceolate, to narrowly clavate;
bluntly acute apex with rounded base; petals implicate; about 16.0
mm long, 8.0 mm long in terminal bulb portion and 8.0 mm long in
tube; corolla tube to 2.0 mm diameter, bulb to 3.5 mm diameter; Bud
color: Exposed petal bulb portion nearest RHS N81C; between tube
and bulb nearest RHS N92A, corolla tube basal 1.0 mm nearest RHS
145C and distal tube nearest RHS 76B; calyx nearest RHS 137B with
strong blushing proximally of nearest RHS 187A; Petals: Five;
consisting of limb and basal claw fused into corolla tube; apex
rounded, lightly erose and emarginate, cleft to about 2.0 mm deep;
limbs imbricate only at base; limb glabrous adaxial and abaxial,
tube puberulent adaxial and glabrous abaxial; Petal size: Limb
about 11.5 mm long and 9.0 mm wide near middle; corolla tube about
14.0 mm long and 2.5 mm diameter at face and 2.0 mm diameter at
base; Petal color upon first opening: Adaxial.--Limb between RHS
N80A and RHS N80B with two bars about 1.0 mm long and 0.5 mm wide
in center eye nearest RHS N81A; proximal 3.0 mm of corolla tube
nearest RHS 145D, remaining distal tube portion between RHS N82C
and RHS N82D. Abaxial.--Limb nearest RHS N80B; proximal 3.0 mm of
corolla tube nearest RHS 145D, distally nearest RHS N82D. Petal
color upon maturity: Adaxial.--Limb nearest RHS N80A with center
fading to nearest RHS 86C; proximal 3.0 mm of corolla tube nearest
RHS 145D, remaining distal tube portion between RHS N82C and RHS
N82D. Abaxial.--Limb nearest RHS 86C; proximal 3.0 mm of corolla
tube nearest RHS 145D, distally nearest RHS N82D. Androecium:
typically five; Filaments.--Typically five, adnate to inner corolla
to various heights about 7.0 mm to 11.0 mm from base; free in the
distal 0.5 mm to 1.0 mm long and 0.2 mm in diameter; color nearest
RHS NN155C. Anther.--Five; oblong elliptic; basifixed; oblong,
about 1.5 mm long by 0.7 mm wide; color nearest RHS 17B.
Pollen.--Nearly microscopic; color nearest RHS N25D. Gynoecium: one
pistil per flower; 12.0 mm long; Style.--Cylindrical; about 9.5 mm
long and 0.2 mm diameter when flower is mature; persistent after
flower abscission; color nearest RHS 1D. Stigma.--Trifid in
proximal 1.0 mm long, about 0.2 mm diameter; color nearest RHS 1D.
Ovary.--Inferior; conical; glabrous; lustrous; slightly acute apex
and truncate base; about 1.5 mm long and 1.0 mm diameter; color
nearest RHS 144A. Calyx: Campanulate; pubescent abaxial, glabrous
adaxial; about 8.0 mm long and 4.0 mm across at apex; Sepals: Five;
linear to lanceolate; glabrous adaxial and puberulent abaxial;
narrowly acute apex, fused in basal 3.0 mm; margin entire; matte
abaxial, and lustrous adaxial; individually about 8.0 mm long and
1.0 mm wide at fusion; Sepal color: Adaxial and abaxial nearest RHS
138A with margins of nearest RHS 157A; Peduncle: Puberulent;
strong, flexible; mostly upright; cylindrical; to about 1.5 mm
diameter at base and 2.2 cm long; with average 4.2 flowers;
Peduncle color: Low light or ventrally between RHS 146D and RHS
145B; high light or dorsally nearest RHS 187B; Pedicle:
Cylindrical; puberulent; flexible; upright to outwardly; variable
lengths from about 9.0 mm to 5.0 mm long and 0.5 mm diameter;
Pedicle color: Variable depending on light exposure; with low light
or ventrally nearest RHS 138A; high light or dorsally nearest RHS
N186C; Fruit and seeds: Not observed; Hardiness and culture: The
new plant grows best with full sun, light moisture and deep
drainage; hardy to at least from USDA zone 4 through 8. Disease and
pest resistance: Phlox `Rose Quartz` demonstrates excellent powdery
mildew resistance under conditions that would normally show
symptoms.
* * * * *
References