Possible sport off 'Silver sword'

Pitoon

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I have several 'Silver sword' in the ground as landscape plants. This particular cultivar is known for their variegated leaves. However I found one with a shoot having solid green leaves and a completely different leaf shape. I'm really curious if this shoot will continue on with this particular leaf color and shape. The shoot also has a flower bud so I will see if there is any change to the flower shape and color.

Hopefully next spring I should be able to confirm if this shoot is actually a sport or not. Pretty excited about this as this would be my first azalea sport found.

20211103_092757.jpg20211103_092739.jpg
 

ABCarve

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Maybe it's reverting back. Where did the original silver sword come from?
 

Pitoon

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Maybe it's reverting back. Where did the original silver sword come from?
'Silver sword' was a sport from 'Girard's Rose'. The leaves on 'Girard's Rose' do look similar to the leaves on the shoot in the pic that I posted. However 'Girard's Rose' seems to have both normal leaf type and narrow elliptic leaf type. What would be really helpful would be seeing the flower. I've added a picture of 'Girard's Rose' below........

Girard's Rose Azalea (Rhododendron 'Girard's Rose') in Columbus Dublin  Delaware Grove City Gahanna Bexley Ohio OH at Oakland Nurseries Inc

Shrubs: Azalea 'Girard Rose'
 

Glaucus

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Yeah, that's a sport. I am not that knowledgeable about leaf variegation though. I was recently discussing this with someone, but I do not even know the mechanism.
But this quite clearly shows that whatever mutation or development causes variegation, it also causes a leaf change.

However, it is a bit like Kinsai reverting back, though. The leaf variegation sport is the 'valuable' or 'special' one. And the normal sport is just normal.
How this sport compares with the original 'Girard's Rose', you will have to check for yourself.
The leaf shape difference in your picture, Pitoon, is caused by a difference in leaf shape between last years summer leaves and the fresh new spring growth.

So the challenge is finding a new variegated branch. And then with an additional challenge of not having that variegated sport revert back too often, so that the variegation is stable at least up to the production of mature plants. Since variegated sports are quite rare, the person I chatted with about this is also unsure about how stable or unstable these usually are.

It could be very similar to other variegated plants. One would think that this mechanism can be quite universal, as long as the leaf pattern is the same. In this case, it is the margin of the leaf that is white. I think there are also examples (not sure if in azaleas) where the center is white, or where there are several consecutive anti-parallel stripey sectors.
 

Pitoon

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@Glaucus using the 'Kinsai' is a good example of the 'reverting back to original'. So in theory if the bud on this shoot blooms it should be 'Girard's Rose' if it is indeed a true revert back to original. But if the flower is a different shape or color, then this would be a sport of a sport. I'm curious to see what comes of this next spring.
 

Glaucus

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Yeah, if it is a bit different than 'Girard's Rose', one could decide to register it and sell it under that new name.

These are biological systems. So they are fluid. They do not stop changing or stop being dynamic because we wrote down a description and a name of a cultivar.
 

Pitoon

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So the sport has bloomed and its a different flower shape from 'Silver sword' and from 'Rosebud'.

'Rosebud' picture below is an open flower that has slight ruffles along the the edges of the petals. Leaves are also solid green.
DETA-673.jpg

'Silver sword' picture below are semi closed flowers with exaggerated ruffles on the edges of the petals. The leaves are also variegated. 'Silver sword' is a sport of 'Rosebud'
20220426_181726.jpg
20220426_181755.jpg


Here is the sport I found off of my 'Silver sword'. This flower is completely open and does not have the ruffles like 'Rosebud'. The leaves are also solid green. It's actual a nice flower.
20220426_181636.jpg20220426_181747.jpg

This summer I will take a few cuttings and grow this sport out to see what it's growth habit is. If it's worth it, I may register it with the American Rhododendron Society as a new cultivar.
 

Deep Sea Diver

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One could. Its kinda cool to think about naming a plant of your own. It’s not all that hard. The downside is it doesn’t even have to be a decent plant. To quote the ASA write up…. “Actually, there has never been a requirement for official trials of plant quality prior to name registration.“.

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Glaucus

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There is like a powerpoint from the ASA that lists everything about registering a new cultivar. It is free.

The thing is that there are many registered cultivar compared to how many cultivar there are that are in common trade.
 
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