Did your Dianthis ever do this?

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Posted by lilsprout Mi 5 (My Page) on

Thu, Jul 3, 14 at 13:39

I've had these for three years now and suddenly it's changing colors, some solid, some just half like in picture. I have 6 of these plants, but only 2 are changing colors.

What causes this?

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RE: Did your Dianthis ever do this?

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Posted by david883 5/6 (My Page) on
Thu, Jul 3, 14 at 14:10

I have a white peony that has one lone, pink bloom in it. Same plant and everything. Its the strangest thing. Some sort of reverting or something? Maybe its paranormal.

RE: Did your Dianthis ever do this?

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Posted by SunnyBorders 5A (My Page) on
Thu, Jul 3, 14 at 14:24

Fascinating.

I'd say that one flower is an example of the type of mosaicism arising from a mutation during development.

RE: Did your Dianthis ever do this?

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Posted by linaria 7 Switzerland (My Page) on
Thu, Jul 3, 14 at 14:59

Some plant species (and other live organisms it seems) like Dahlias have funny genes, transposons, that cause jumping color patterns. So basically the flowers could be red and white, but all with a different pattern on one plant (the flower shape is more or less the same).

I found one article on finding transposons in a particular, yellow garden cultivar of Dianthus.

Or could be some other mutation, a sport in a way.
Probably those changes are not stable and probably would not be passed on to seedlings of the next generation.

Sometimes changes in temperature or hot temps can cause changes in the color production as well.

But really fascinating (I hope that was an ironic "paranormal"),

enjoy your nice Dianthus, Lin

RE: Did your Dianthis ever do this?

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Posted by green_go z5a (My Page) on
Thu, Jul 3, 14 at 15:18

My purple lilac ‘Sensation’ sends white flowers sometimes:

RE: Did your Dianthis ever do this?

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Posted by lilsprout (My Page) on
Thu, Jul 3, 14 at 16:02

I found it very strange to discover the first solid one.

But when the half colored one appeared....I couldn't believe my eyes, I too thought "paranormal" while scratching my head....
It will be interesting to see if the other plants change as well.

Thanks everyone.

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