I purchased and planted a couple of polemonium "Stairway to Heaven" a month or so ago. They're doing fine, except that the variegation has faded significantly. Now they're sort-of dark green borders and light green interiors. I really want the much more defined variegation. They receive some morning sun (about 3 hours or so). Is this the problem? If I move them to a more shaded spot will the variegation come back? Could it be a problem with soil PH? Thanks for any and all wisdom and suggestions.
Polemonium Losing Variegation
I have the same exact problem. Here's my Stairway to Heaven. The photo was for the fern, but you can see the polemonium too. It may be that 3 hours of sun isn't enough.
Revclaus, check the perennials forum for other responses to this question. Apparently it's stone cold normal. one suggestion was to give the plants a haircut back to about 3" and the new foliage would come back variegated. Once the heat hits they tend to go dormant.
Lesley
Mine has SOME green on it but I find that alot of my variegated perennials (brunner.geranium.carex) that I bought variegated just slowly turned all green..even if I cut out the green..it just happens. Infuriating...but it happens.
According to the Shady Oaks website the foliage turns to green with the arrival of hot summer weather. I wonder it will show more variegation again in the cooler weather of fall?
None of mine ever do...they just get greener and greener and then they are all green. The Polemonium however seems to start out variegated every spring but not the rest.
My polemonium is still variegated, just not with the pink. The fern is turning green. Bummer!
Mine isn't totally green, it's dark green in the middle (just like it always was) and a light green around the edges. Thanks for the ray of hope from Shady Oaks. I don't think they'll get variegation back in the fall, but thanks, Lyla, for the encouragement for next spring.
Lesley
I had a number of hosta - Patriot - that had to be moved to a shadier location. The ones I moved earlier in the spring are a deep green with clear white streaks.
As we kept going into more and more restrictions on water, the ones in more sun were dying. I pulled them up and planted them in the same shade area as the first ones and the color difference is interesting. The recently moved ones are actually chartreuse with cream stripes. These are all from the same original mother plant from years ago.
I will be interested to see if the newly moved ones change color this year or next... the amount of shade does make a difference.
Yes, it makes a huge amount of difference to colour how much shade and when the shade is there, for the hosta colourings. A Blue Hosta can be green if it gets too much sun and it will most likely not change colour until it grows in the shadier area next year. Patriot is one of the hardiest hostas around and it often can take some sun but may be a more creamy colour. You can check the Hosta Forum for more info.
Susan
humble hosta horder
This message was edited Jul 13, 2006 8:19 PM
