I have several different types of variegated bananas. Some, Ae Ae for example, always remain variegated. Others sometimes loose the variegation, or it comes sporadically. Any ideas on what is going on? Is this just normal for some variegated plants (I have a few others, a Caesalpinia for example, that are losing their variegation}? Is the position of the plant important (lots of sun versus partial or even shady? Some other cultural remedy?
thanks!
popper1
Variegation Coming and going
There are a few things that can happen. One is that variegated plants can put out non-variegated branches/stems from time to time (reversion). If you let the all-green part go, it is more vigorous than the variegated plant and will eventually take over. Then there are some variegated plants that will do a better job of maintaining the variegation in the sun or in the shade (different for different plants) so your lighting could have an impact. And there are some plants where the variegation just isn't very stable so they'll have some tendency to go back to green no matter what you do. I've never grown variegated bananas or Caesalpinias so I couldn't say for sure what is going on with them.