On Tue, 9 May 2006 08:24:53 -0500, JMagerl wrote:
My question is why have the varigated varieties disappeared. THis is the 5th
year in a row that I have been unable to buy a variagated NG impatiens (NW
burbs of Chicago)

Wild guess: the newer cultivars bloom earlier, making them cheaper to produce.
And they just happen not to have variegated leaves. Or your area growers
weren't finding the market for the older forms.

A possible physiological reason for that: when a leaf has less chlorophyll,
it can't produce as much photosynthate as a similar one loaded with
chlorophyll,given conditions for maximum photosynthesis. So plants
with leaves that are variegated because some cells are missing chlorophyll
tend to be slower growers than similar green-leaved plants, or similar
plants that are variegated because there's another pigment + a full amount
of chlorophyll (e.g. red leaved plants are usually full chlorophyll +
anthocyanin.)

Kay

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