AusBonsai

Someone in town was clearing an overgrown garden bed and offered some azaleas- free to a good home. They even dug them up for me. That was last year and the azaleas seem to have settled in well.

Now I have flowers but the plant has 2 completely different coloured flowers Both the flowers are on stems growing from the same trunk.

I know that some satsukis are known for having multi coloured flowers but I have not seen it on Indicas before.
Has anyone else seen this sort of variation?

I have an A. indica that often sports a totally different colour. It's the Alphonse Anderson - pale pink with spots, but now and again it throws a dark pink branch. Just had a quick look, and yup, there is one.

This led me to some interesting reading. There are some published studies and reviews looking into the genetics involved. They discuss Belgian azaleas, suggesting that rhododendrons in general might be susceptible to this.

As I understand it - and at this point I’m spelling things out for myself, as I’m sure you’re probably way ahead of me here, Neil - there’s a phenomenon called ‘bud sporting’ in any plant, where a somatic mutation leads to different growth pattern in one branch / flower etc, which can then be propagated. It seems that azaleas (and camelias?) are rather susceptible. The satsuki in particular are genetically unstable enough to reliably bud sport, so they can have a mix of flowers each season (a trait that’s probably been cultívated). Variegation appears to be due to mutant tetraploid petal segments developing alongside the normal diploid ones, which occurs in a branch that is itself more genetically unstable than the other branches on the tree with monochrome flowers.

This is pretty superficial reading on my part, I’m sure there are others in the forum able to explain it better and correct me if I’ve totally misunderstood this. Interesting regardless!

https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... our_sports

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 9915303331

I also have an A indica the same variety as Mel's. This year I got a bunch of solid dark purple flowers. The purple flowers dropped faster, and are already gone, so I don't have a photo.

Found 1 left this morning. Not as purple as I thought. Looked much darker from a distance.

TimIAm wrote: ↑September 17th, 2024, 7:11 am Found 1 left this morning. Not as purple as I thought. Looked much darker from a distance.

IMG_5612.jpg

Yup, I'm pretty sure this pink one throws sports as a matter of course. I've definitely seen mention of it elsewhere over the years.