I have had plants in containers treated with a systemic insecticide in several cases have their flowers start coming in faded in color. This has happened to me with African Violets for sure, and I think it was my COT also. I eventually just got rid of the plants to get rid of the pests.

We have a seedling or 2 a year that do this- we call it the "Green Thing" & I use it in arrangements-- then people want to know where thay can buy it!! We generally don't get as much hard center as yours has but more of the frilly bracts-- almost a cluster of them. There was a long complicated answer when I asked a botanist friend about it- something about the genes getting messed up & a cluster of the green bracts are all you're left with. This year we had one that had one petal & all the rest bracts-- looked like a rude finger if you know what I mean >:) There's even a fancy name for it but I can't remember what it is! They look really cool in a weird arrangement with Wyn's Eeekk!!

I'm sorry to say but one to every 500 hedge Thuja cultivars will make such a varieagation once and a while. 95% of the propagations will revert back to green. Making cuttings of grafts doesn't make difference, both ways are easy for a proffesional nurseryman. Never use a Platycladus understock for a Thuja cultivar. It will grow at first but after a while the grafting union will show complications and the graft will die. Use Thuja plicata seedlings understock, even liners of the Thuja (x) 'Green Giant' will do well for this job. Good luck and keep us informed!

Good recommendations from Polly, above. Another caveat - don't buy into their descriptions wholeheartedly - even the catalog descriptions of the more traditional things, like apples, don't always give 'the whole story' - sure, one variety may be great in a small area of VA, but it might not ripen at all in northern IL, or might die outright in a MN winter, and might not get enough chill-hours to even set blossom buds in south AL. I've seen enough descriptions of some of the 'wierd' things, and then received first-hand reports from other fruit enthusiasts that I know, to know that everything is not always as it's presented to be. There are a few of those nurseries, specializing in 'exotic' fruits and such that you have to watch out for - you might think you'd be getting a grafted plant, but you may only be getting a seedling, which at best, may take an inordinate time to reach fruiting age, or at worst, may produce fruit nothing like what you thought you were getting.