When Stripey Plants Go Bland

Ever buy some fancy variegated plant only to have it revert back to green? Me, too.

But here’s the deal, I kind of like plucking out the reverted portions. It’s really all you can do. I see it often with Lysimachia ‘Alexander’, it begins coming in green, getting bigger and badder than poor ol’ Alex. I enjoy pulling out the green portions. I find the plucking to be oddly satisfying, like peeling the skin after a nasty sunburn or popping off a scab or pulling off split ends! I could go on all day, but I bet you want me to stop.

Make sure you pull out as much of the root as possible, and by that I mean the reverted portions, not your split ends.

Here some Phalaris ‘Feesey’s Form’ is reverting to an even more heinous version of Phalaris, just when I thought it wasn’t possible.

I’ll be in the forum, either that’s where you can tell me I’m disgusting or where you can list off more grossly similar activities.