Busy Lizzy cuttings

Last year I grew 'Jungle Gold' and as I really liked the colour but they were slow to get going, I took some cuttings. The cuttings have just begun to flower- and one is red! I am puzzled. I don't see how that happened. :confused:

 

Liz, as I am sure you know, you can get spontaneous 'sports', ie a part of the plant that has a differant coloured flower from the rest. Many new varieties are developed from these. Unless you made a mistake in your source material, that seems to be the only other explanation.

 

Usually if you take cuttings it should be the same as the parent plant. It's only when you use the seeds the new plants will not be the same colour.

 

PeterS, you must be right although no red flowers have appeared on the original plant. The flower is the same shape as the Jungle Gold. I have seen plants like it so unfortunately nothing special!

 

Liz - whilst I cannot think of any other explanation. Its an extra-ordinary coincidence, which I find hard to believe. The chance of getting a sport is extremely small, but the chance of that being the bit that you took for a cutting is infinitesimally small. But as Sherlock Holmes said ......

 

Yes, I agree! But I didn't have any other Impatiens last year. The original plant is still flowering so I'll keep an eye on it.

 

You can get a process occuring in plants called reversion this can affect colour or shape of flowers or foliage many times I have had plants that have produced flowers of different colours on the plant one being typical of one of the parents, in fact some growers encourage it.
I agree with Peter you would have had to have picked a cutting that had reverted.If you have time read this article you may find it interesting.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=34735

 

Walnut - thanks - I have had a good go at that article - but its not an easy read!

Liz, I suspect it must be some sort of sport/reversion. Is it possible that the act of taking a cutting actually triggered it. As the article says signals are sent by chemicals that travel up the plant. If the stress caused by the cutting process caused some of these chemicals to be created, that would increase the chance of it happening. And it would help to explain the otherwise double coincidence of it happening, and happening to the piece that you chose at the same time.

You could yet get a PhD out of this. :D

 

The bit I took the cuttings from was quite a large branch [for a busy lizzie!] which had been partially broken, so there was plenty of stress.
That article looks worthy of study, Walnut, but due to aging software, it is not reproducing properly, all the lines are overprinting each other. Can anyone do me a big favour and copy it for me, then email it? That might work. :rolleyes:

 

Liz try clicking the third item at the top left PDK(1010K). It will put it into PDF format - assuming you have Acrobat - its available free on the internet.

The HTML site is difficult to cut and paste, but I have got a copy of the PDF, but can't send you an attachment via GC. E-mail me direct if you want a copy of the PDF.