Canna ‘Pink Sunburst’; B Kniphofia hybrids; C Canna ‘Panache’; D dark red Cordyline ‘Festival Grass’; E green leaves and flowers of Yucca filamentosa ‘Color Guard’; F Aloe cv.; G Trachelospermum asiaticum ‘Ogon Nishiki’; H Coprosma kirkii ‘Variegata’.

 

“I hate variegated plants,” I used to hear people say. “They look like clowns.” I don’t hear that anymore. As people put in practice their gardening passion, they discovered that as wonderful as flowers were, they were fleeting. Foliage, on the other hand, could last for months, or even year-round. Gardeners also discovered that shade, far from being a curse, could be a blessing and an opportunity to grow an entirely new group of subtle and fascinating plants. Variegated foliage with stripes, contrasting edges, or splashes and spots of white, yellow, cream, or even silver simulates dappled sunlight and attracts attention in the darker places. Today, people collect these colorful plants (and hosta lovers might even fight over them).

Variegation in a leaf results from a lack of the green pigment chlorophyll. Some plants are variegated due to disease, but this is uncommon. The alteration is usually a cellular mutation that may be propagated through cuttings, or in some cases of genetic variation, even seeds. It might also be chimerical, when a single organism produces two or more genetically different types of meristem tissue—cells at the tip of new growth. In that case, propagation is limited since the ability to produce the variance only occurs at the point of differentiation and therefore cannot be reproduced, for example, from root cuttings.

Variegated leaves are typically white and green, but there are multicolored leaves with red, pink, and yellow over green, like some cannas. There are leaves with zones of color, like the geraniums with dark maroon blotches. Variegation can appear as light color at the edges of the leaves (marginate), or in the center of the leaf (medio variegation). Plants that are striped usually have lines running the length of the leaf, but a few grasses have crosswise dashes.

Chartreuse and variegated cream and green (clockwise): Quercus robur ‘Concordia’; Sanguisorba officinalis ‘Lemon Splash’; Metasequoia glyptostroboides ‘Ogon’; Filipendula ulmaria ‘Variegata’; Morus alba ‘Snowflake’; Hedera helix ‘Buttercup’; Convallaria majalis ‘Variegata; Euonymous japonicus ‘Micro-phyllus Pulchellus’; Melissa officinalis ‘Lime’; Lysimachia punctata ‘Golden Alexander’.

Clockwise in green and white: Miscanthus sinensis ‘Cosmopolitan’*; Hydrangea arborescens var. radiata, Alchemilla alpina with silver hairs beneath their leaves; Pachysandra terminalis ‘Variegata’; Lamium maculatum ‘White Nancy’; Clethra alnifolia ‘Creel’s Calico’; Disporum sessile ‘Variegata’.