LOOKING BACK, LOOKING AHEAD AT THE CANADIAN ORNAMENTAL PLANT FOUNDATION (COPF )

BY JAMIE AALBERS

Thanks to COPF Past President Wilbert G. Ronald for contributing this article. Wilbert is a long-time supporter and advocate of COPF and operates Jeffries Nurseries Ltd in Portage la Prairie, MB

IT IS NOW CLOSE TO 60 YEARS AGO that the concept of COPF was being drawn together prior to its launch in 1965. It was seen as a mechanism to allow Canadian private plant breeders to receive a royalty for their new plant introductions in that they would receive 90% of the royalty fee with the other 10% going towards administration expenses. This was seen as an alternative to the US Plant Patent system which was put in place in 1930 and allowed US plant breeders to receive income for varietal introductions. While the Canadian federal government did not support introducing patent or PBR (Plant Breeders Rights) in 1965, Agriculture Canada breeders were looking for promotion of their own breeding work including introductions of roses, perennials and woody plants from the Morden Research Station and roses and weigela from the Ottawa research team. Horticultural staff from the federal government were very supportive of the formation of COPF.

At the time, the government did not take its 90% breeder share on their developed plants but contributed this towards COPF resulting in favourable financial terms for COPF. American propagators were encouraged to propagate Canadian plants and to use COPF to pay a royalty on their own propagation. American breeders were encouraged to use COPF to enter the Canadian market with their US bred plants and to receive a royalty from Canadian propagators. Growers and breeders joined COPF as members and growers filed an annual report of propagation or sales of all plants that were registered with COPF. Certainly in 1965 there were more private plant breeders and some new plants that were awaiting commercialization. The COPF operation was based on sound business principles, but it is important to note the system worked largely on an honour system of reporting royalties as there was limited funds for monitoring grower’s production and royalty payments.

The pillars supporting COPF success certainly began to change over time due to a number of changes over which COPF had no control. Some of these included the reduction of government plant breeding work in the early 1990’s and the passage of Canadian Plant Breeders Rights legislation in 1990 which offered an alternative for cultivar protection and royalties, but not for royalty collection. As well, the original “Registered” cultivars with COPF were aging, particularly the popular older “Parkland” (Morden) and “Explorer” (Ottawa) roses and dwarf weigela. There was a reluctance on the part of nurseries to pay royalties indefinitely on older cultivars. Royalties from annual flowers began to be collected on the first sale of cuttings by large breeding and propagation companies, removing another source of COPF revenue. Finally, there was the advent of new US brands built largely around shrub introductions. These new brands had administrations that could collect their own royalties, develop marketing programs and bypass COPF services. By 2005, these sweeping changes challenged the future sustainability of the COPF model and forced structural changes to COPF.

Over the past 10 years significant changes have come to COPF including the organizational downsizing and contracting the administration of COPF to CNLA. The administration fees for COPF have increased to 20% of royalties and COPF expenditures on meetings, trade shows and nursery monitoring have been drastically cut. Much of COPF revenue is now coming from the Canadian Artist rose introductions such as Campfire, Oscar Peterson etc. and the best of the older Morden and Ottawa introductions as well as a few plants from private breeders. In the past few years some private Canadian breeders have started to collect all or part of their own royalties due to the uncertain future of COPF. The royalties on recent “49th Parallel” rose introductions are collected by Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, even though the development of these roses was strongly supported by COPF royalties from older AAFC bred plants. Funds collected by COPF from these older Agriculture and Agri-food Canada plants go to the Heritage Plant Development Fund managed by CNLA through the New Plant Development Committee which supports Vineland and University of Saskatchewan research (see CNLA Newsbrief Winter 2023 Vol. 31 Issue 4).

While the above review may not sound highly encouraging for plant breeding in