Reversion
Learn how to deal with your variegated plant reverting to plain green foliage.
Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Time to act | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
Sometimes shoots appear on previously plain-leaved plants with attractive variegations, and these can then be propagated by nurserymen to make a new plant. But the new variegated plant might try to revert to all-green foliage because the mutation isn't stable. If left, this all-green growth, which will be more vigorous than the variegated kind, will take over the plant.
Symptoms
Variegated leaves are caused by natural mutations, but these mutations aren't always a stable, permanent feature, and the plant might try to revert to the original, all-green leaves.
Find it on
any variegated plant
Organic
The only solution is to cut back any all-green growth to leave just the desired variegated foliage.
August issue on sale now!
The July issue of BBC Gardeners' World magazine is on sale now, buy online or in stores now.
Exclusive garden offers
Browse our range of seasonal garden offers from our trusted suppliers to save on everything you need to create a beautiful garden.