Sports and reversions generally begin with a mutation in a growth bud and affect everything that grows out of that bud. So be sure you take the reverted canes all the way back to their point of attachment. Treat reverted basal canes as you would a Dr. Huey sucker. It's interesting and surprising to hear of a plant being taken over by reverted canes in just a few years, as though the reversion had some genetic superiority to the sport. In the case of variegated shrubs that are reverting, it's easy to understand that a stem with solid green leaves has more ability to turn sunlight into growth energy.

If 'Peppermint Twist' returns to its original state which would be 'Candy Floss', reversion would be the proper term. Some mutations/sports have a tendency to not be completely stable and do revert back to their original state. This is often seen with variegated plants. You need to cull out the original non-variegated part because it will over take the sport and you will be left with nothing but the original version. 'Peppermint Twist' being a variegated flower sport could easily be doing that. Now some sports being genetically unstable will throw off more new sports as with the chrysanthemum example above (I've seen this with roses also) that are not like the original cultivar. Then the term reversion would not be proper. Remy Remy

Here's a few pics of my sports, none of them are ultra-exciting, but it's what I have. Sadly, I never got around to starting any seeds this year, so no seedling pics (and to think I even bought streaky pod-parent seeds off ebay and never started them, shame on me.) Buff Gold Standard possibly sporting or just acting funny? (the hosta in the 6-7 o'clock position) Clifford's Comet with an eye sporting off the left side. Note the lack of a green margin. I chose not to separate the sporting eye from the mother plant, hopefully it comes back this year with more roots/eyes and I might separate it. I found a Francee that "could" be sporting. Note the leaf in the 9 o'clock position. Last year I found a pot of Risky Business, which contained normal RB, solid green RB, and streaked RB. First pic is before I separated them. And here is the streaked portion once I separated them (sadly, it never set any seed pods, I'm guessing it's not very fertile?)

revert back to something prior .. and not necessarily the last one .. could go further ... sport forward to some new derivation??? ken