New here...about H. canariensis variegata

Hi, all and Al. (Al, I still use your 5:1:1 and it's great escpecially for oak seedlings)
It seems to me that if bromeliads, clematis, etc. have their own forum then ivies should also.
So, I settled on this forum to ask some questions about the aforementioned ivy.
Is the mostly white variegation normal or a sport? I didn't really see anything like it in the plantfiles.
Also, does anyone think if I took cuttings from it they would be stable?
Is there a clone or variety out there that is the same?

Closer up.

There as hundreds of ivy varieties, with more every year it seems. You could probably get a consistent plant from a cutting, but "stable" is a relative term when referring to ivies!

"but "stable" is a relative term when referring to ivies!"


Hahaha, hoosier. Don't I know it. Several if not many of mine either sport or revert (?).
I've been told that hostas never 'revert'. Only sport. Is the same true with ivies?

Most hosta experts refer to variegated hostas that send up green leaves as having "reverted", meaning going back to a parent plant or any less desirable characteristic. Heck, I don't know what the proper term is, but I would guess if it's a desirable change, it's a sport; if it's not a good change, it's a reversion!

I posted on the hosta forum about a variegated hosta that started putting out larger green leaves and they insisted it was a sport.
Would be nice to know for sure about ivies.

Google "ivy society" to see if you can find the website for the national society. It should have loads of info.

Edited: I found it. It's www.ivy.org

(The Ivy Society is actually a medical group. But this link will get you to where you need to go.)

This message was edited Dec 30, 2010 10:02 AM

I would say that a sport is a mutation that gives you something new/different, and a reversion is something going back to what its original parent plant looked like. So if you have a variegated plant and it goes back to being green & looking like the original species that it came from initially, then that's a reversion. But in the case of the hosta where the leaves were larger as well as being green, that may well be a sport because presumably the leaf size is unusual (if the leaves had been normal size, then I would have said it was a reversion)

Thx, ecrane. That helps.