So I am aware verigated Pachysandra exists, but I found this one, well two shoots in this mass of solid green pachy that went verigated, but they are very white dominant, would this still be the Pachysandra terminalis 'Variegata', or a different one?
I enclosed a picture, and if you google Pachysandra terminalis 'Variegata', you will see this is very much more white than the others.....
thoughts?
this is what majority of the other pachy's look like that you find online
I think your plant is especially nice and I would do all I could to keep it growing. Interesting this variegated mutation came about amidst all green pachysandra.
If you had an all-green pachysandra and it all of a sudden put out some variegated shoots, that's called a sport, it's a random mutation that happens sometimes. Sometimes sports will be stable and you can propagate them from cuttings and the variegation will stay looking the same, that's often how the variegated cultivars come into existence. Since yours is a sport of your all green one, it is not the same as the 'Variegata' cultivar. If you kept reproducing it by cuttings and all the cuttings stayed looking like that, then eventually it could get its own cultivar name, but many times spontaneous variegation like that won't be stable when you propagate, either the plants will tend to revert to green very easily, or the variegation pattern won't stay exactly the same. It certainly wouldn't hurt to try and start some cuttings of it and see what happens though!
ecrane, thanks so much, you answered my #1 question, which was, is it the same as variegata.. I have heard Pachysandra is very easy to propagate via cuttings [softwood] so I am hoping this plant wont revert on me. that would be so neat. I am very excited to see what happens!
spin off, if anyone has propped pachy, what method did you use?
You'll have to let us know how it goes! That would be really exciting if you could propagate it and it keeps that variegation pattern, it's very pretty and personally I think it looks nicer than 'Variegata'. Maybe you can introduce it to the trade someday and become rich and famous! Well, OK I don't know if there are really too many rich & famous gardeners, but it never hurts to dream! Sorry no propagation tips though--I've never even grown Pachysandra and my success rate with rooting cuttings of anything is currently at 0%!
prettyhortgirl:
I have rooted pachy in water, but I think dipping the cuttings in rooting hormone and planting in seed starting mix gives better results. Make sure your cutting includes root nodes (those small bumps on the stems) and they are under the soil line. Keep the soil moist (but not wet) with bottom watering and grow in bright light. You can mist the leaves if the growing location has good air circulation. Some people tent their cuttings under plastic to keep up the humidity until new growth appears.
Normally Pachysandra is lifted out the ground and devided into seperate plants, but if you want cutting to root, best to trim the bottom of the cutting, remove some of the leaves, dip the end of the cutting in rooting hormone and put it into compost/sand mix for good drainage, make sure you have a good length of the bare stem in the potting compost mix, this will give a better chance of some of the leaf axles to make new roots, keep it out of strong sunlight till the roots appear as it will dehydrate with strong sun, keep the compost just moist, not wet. and it should root before the season ends, they are not fast to root, but with care, it shoild work, once you have the roots, pinch out the growing tip so it will form new shoots and bush out, you will have to keep a close eye on it as the first time you see an all green shoot appear, cut it off as you dont want these much stronger growths to take over the whole plant, if you get lots of new all green shoots, then the shrub is reverting back to this type, so take another cutting from the verigated one and try again, Good luck, hope it is a new strain and you win the lottery for your effort, well done. Weenel.
