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Growing Home - Patenting Plants

Did you know plants can be patented like inventions? The first U.S. plant patent was issued in 1931 for a rose called “New Dawn,” a vigorous climbing rose that blooms repeatedly all season. Its breeder, New Jersey grower Henry Bosenberg, had discovered it as a chance mutation of another rose. The New Dawn’s rose was such a hit that it sparked a boom in patented roses – nearly half of the first few thousand plant patents were for roses. Patenting plants increases plant breeders ability to profit from their work.