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cultivar

Gardening with Variegated Plants: Pros and Cons

April 30, 2020

Do you love trying new plants to add a little extra “zing” to your garden? If so, you’ve probably bought or lusted after a plant or two with variegated leaves or flowers. Variegation means that leaves have white, yellow, or other colors in addition to green, or flowers that have multiple colors rather than solid color petals. The variations may be regular bands, edges, patterns, or wild splotches. Although you can find annuals, houseplants, perennials, shrubs, trees, and even herb and vegetable plants with variegation, they are the exception, not the rule. Growing these unusual plants comes with both risks and benefits!

What causes variegation?
Variegation occurs for many reasons.
• It comes naturally. Where variegation has evolved over generations of plants, the plants’ seeds produce new plants with the same characteristics. This pattern variegation may occur in flowers or leaves.

Dragon’s Eye Pine (Pinus densiflora ‘Oculus-Draconis’) with variegated needles (leaves)

• It spontaneously occurs as a “sport” or chimera. Plant can spontaneously produce sections that have cells with two distinct genetic characteristics through mutations. You may spot a branch on a plant you are growing that looks different from the rest of a plant: while most leaves are solid green, one section has white patterns. In this case, if growers want to propagate new plants with this variegation, they must do so vegetatively—from a portion of the parent plant—rather than from seed. The houseplant golden pothos (Epipremnum pinnatum) is easily propagated from cuttings. ‘Night Sky’ petunias are propagated through tissue culture to produce plants that have purple flowers with white splotches—but these patterns vary with temperature (see “For more info below”).

Golden Pothos

 

‘Night Sky’ Petunia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• It is a symptom of a viral disease. Many variegated plants produce their color variations because of viruses. The most famous example is early generations of tulips that displayed color breaks when infected with tulip breaking virus—as you might expect these tulips eventually declined and contemporary tulips with these distinctive markings are genetic variations, rather than diseased bulbs. Similarly, many variegated Hosta varieties were found to be the result of Hosta virus X and their introduction led to an HVX epidemic and subsequent virus testing of new varieties to try to contain its spread. However, some Camellia varieties with multicolored flowers are plants bred with Camellia yellow mottle virus, and some brightly colored Canna varieties are selections of plants with Canna yellow mottle virus.

Camellia

 

 

 

 

 

‘Bengal Tiger’ Canna

Pros of variegation
The primary advantage of variegation to gardeners is the plant’s distinctive appearance. These plants can serve as important focal points in your landscape design.

Lavender

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Variegated Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum odoratum var. pluriflorum ‘Variegatum’)

From the plants’ perspective, variegation may protect plants from herbivores in a variety of ways (Lev-Yadun, 2015). Other researchers are investigating if white patches on variegated plants might facilitate photosynthesis (the process plants use to process sunlight into glucose) when temperatures are low, helping them survive lower temperatures than solid green plants.

Cons of variegation
Some people just don’t like variegated plants and gardeners certainly risk having garish landscapes if they overuse them! Linda Chalker-Scott, Extension Urban Horticulturist, describes variegated plants as “tarted-up” and notes they often looking “environmentally stressed and/or diseased.”
• Weaker growth/Failure to thrive. In fact, some variegated plants don’t do as well as their unvariegated counterparts. Because variegated leaf sections don’t have the chlorophyll of green sections, photosynthesis is typically less efficient, and many variegated plants show weaker growth. Similarly, variegated plants that carry viruses may decline because of the viral infection or even pass the disease on to related plants in your landscape.
• Reversion. Another problem is variegated plants that are “sports” or chimeras may revert to solid green—if you see such new growth, remove it immediately!
• Propagation issues. Unless you know the source of variegation in your plants, you may have difficulty producing more plants—especially from seed. Also, many variegated plants are patented and cannot be propagated for resale without permission.

Article by Buncombe County Extension Master Gardener Volunteers

For more information:

Variegation:https://irrecenvhort.ifas.ufl.edu/plant-prop-glossary/03-genetic-selection/22-genetic-variegation.html

Lev-Yadun, Simcha (2015). The Proposed Anti-Herbivory Roles of White Leaf Variegation. In U. Lu ̈ttge, W. Beyschlag (eds.), Progress in Botany, Springer International.https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Simcha_Lev-Yadun/publication/300009810_The_Proposed_Anti-herbivory_Roles_of_White_Leaf_Variegation/links/592b28ad0f7e9b9979a95996/The-Proposed-Anti-herbivory-Roles-of-White-Leaf-Variegation.pdf

Viruses and ornamental plants:https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/pdf/10.1094/PDIS-11-11-0928-FE

Night sky petunias:https://www.zmescience.com/science/night-sky-petunias-03042019/

Linda Chalker-Scott:http://gardenprofessors.com/tricky-tricolor-leaf/

Why plants lose their variegation:http://gardenprofessors.com/why-doesnt-my-plant-look-like-it-did-last-year/

 

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Categories General Gardening, Landscaping Tags cultivar, flowers, landscape planning, propagation, Variegated plants

What’s That Plant? Why Names Matter!

April 12, 2017

Ever fall in love with a plant at first sight? The first thing you’ll want to know is its name. All too often, you’ll get a “common” name that is anything but common. The friend whose garden you saw it in may know it only as his Aunt Serena’s zinnia, or it may be a classic “pass along” plant with a distinctive moniker such as “Confederate Rose” that has little to do with its botanical origins!

Nicknames?
These common plant names are like nicknames. While almost everyone you know may call you by a nickname, it may be that your parents have one nickname for you, your friends another, and your partner a third. Over a lifetime you might accumulate several different nicknames that reflect your life at different stages or in different places.

Hibiscus mutabilis 'Confederate Rose'_Virginia Sanderson_CC BY-NC-ND 2.0_Flickr
Hibiscus mutabilis ‘Confederate Rose’; Botanical name tells us it’s neither a rose nor a peony

Give me the botanical name!
What you really need to know is the plant’s botanical name. Just as you’re expected to provide the first and last name on your birth certificate when you get a Social Security card or driver’s license, plants have two-part names, or binomials. Just as we typically alphabetize a list of names with the last name first, plant names have the more general name—the genus—first, followed by the more specific name—the species—second. Typically, botanical names are italicized and only the genus is capitalized, though. So “Confederate Rose,” for example, is actually Hibiscus mutabilis. 

You already know some botanical names.
Some plants are known by their botanical names rather than common names, but we tend to know only their genus: Begonia, Hosta, Iris, and Zinnia, for example! To identify any particular plant we need to know the species and often the variety or cultivar.

And that’s precisely why names matter. Knowing a plant is an Iris won’t help you find out much about where and how it grows unless you know the species. And if you want a plant that has that particular flower shape and color, you’ll need to know the variety or cultivar name.

Different species may not look that different, but they may require very different growing conditions, may be hardier or more perennial.

When do species matter?
I found out the hard way that knowing the species matters. I tried for years to grow coneflowers (Rudbeckia), but they grew erratically. After a little detective work, I realized that I was planting Rudbeckia hirta and Rudbeckia triloba varieties, which tend to be short-lived perennials, rather than Rudbeckia fulgida or Rudbeckia subtomentosa varieties, which are reliably perennial! Other popular perennials, such as Coreopsis and Heuchera, include many different species that require different growing conditions. For example, some species prefer damp soils and others prefer dry soils. Choosing plant species that like the growing conditions you have will definitely enhance your reputation as a successful gardener.

Rudbeckia hirta_Matt Levin_CC BY-SA 2.0_NCSU
Rudbeckia hirta, a.k.a black-eyed Susan and gloriosa daisy
Rudbeckia fulgida-var-sullivantii-Goldsturm_F-D-Richards_CC BY-SA 2.0_NCSU
Rudbeckia fulgida, a.k.a. black-eyed Susan and orange coneflower
Rudbeckia subtomentosa_Ian Alexander Martin_CC BY-NC-ND 2.0_Flickr
Rudbeckia subtomentosa; note different shape of flower petals
Echinacea paradoxa_dbarronoss_CC BY-NC-ND 2.0_NCSU
Echinacea paradoxa, a.k.a. yellow coneflower
Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)_Jordan Meeter_CC BY 2.0_Flickr
Echinea purpurea, a.k.a. purple coneflower
Coreopsis tinctoria_Thayne Tuason_CC BY-NC 2.0_NCSU
Coreopsis tinctoria, a.k.a. tickseed; flowers similar to Rudbeckia

Hybrids
Finally, it is useful to recognize that many plants we purchase for our gardens are hybrids—crosses between species or between a species and another hybrid. Hybridizers select for desirable plant traits, so the resulting plants may have larger flowers, or unusual colors. Note, though, that bigger or more unusual is not necessarily better when it comes to attractiveness to birds or pollinators.

Resources
If you hesitate to pronounce botanical names, remember there are no hard and fast rules! Here is an aid that will help you feel more confident if you try: http://www.finegardening.com/pronunciation-guide/a

Article written by Debbie Green, Extension Master Gardener Volunteer.

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Categories General Gardening Tags binomial, botanical name, common name, cultivar, hybrid, plant names, species

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