I think you mean is it a pinwheel. There are pinwheels that are NOT chimeras, and there are some chimeras that are not pinwheels (chimeral folage for example). Take one of the blossoms stems, leave it on the plant, but remove the blossoms and leave the leaves and stalk, and then grow those suckers. Do not remove the stalk from the plant until the suckers have grown. If the new sucker is true, take a leaf, and if it reverts, it is a chimera. I just wrote an article on this which will be published in the AVSA magazine. Neil

My understanding of Av genetics is more than a bit fuzzy, but I'll give it a shot. Chimera AVs have two sets of DNA, and they express this through stripes on the flowers (more rarely through the foliage); they're always 'pinwheel' -- stripes down the middle of the petals, and the main color on the sides. One set of DNA is in the 'skin' of the plant, and the other is in the inside tissues. When you grow babies from leaves, the new plants grow from the external tissue, which means it only gets one set of DNA, and therefore one color. When you grow plants from suckers and the crown, obviously it gets both sets. This whole arrangement is pretty unstable, and plants can revert to one or the other color, especially when stressed (you forget to water, bug attack, etc.). Got it? Korina the Konfused ~embrace the confusion~ ÂNever trust anything that can think for itself if you canÂt see *where it keeps its brain*! ~Arthur Weasley

Violetval - as Mark mentioned - chimeras are not the most stable plants and if it sports, it is probably makes a good gift to the friends, no sense to hold to it. The good way to keep it true - is to harvest and root the suckers, Emerald City chimera (do not remember what is chimera and what is original plant - Emerald City or Emerald Love) - suckers pretty often for me. To rejuvenate the old plant you can take the crown off - and root it, the stump will give you chimera suckers if you keep it alive. There is a loss of vigor when the plant gets old - it can be a reason why it sported, second - if you do not repot it every 6 months - soil gets too acid - and here we go. If I see that the top starts blooming wrong - I would cut the top off - and let the suckers grow from under the older leaves - the ones that bloomed thue. The Chimera blossoms are tied to the way the tissue in a main stem is organised - it should be concentric circles of dark and light colored cells. If one of type of cells peters out with growth - you get solid color blooms, but the bottom of the stem is still organized properly - so the suckers will come true. Irina

Karin, I think you will find that different trailers behave differently. I have probably linked before to a page that explains a little about the various types. Rob's varieties are what most instructions are written for, but some like Pixie Blue are semi-shrub (I think that's it) or upright and don't react the same way. Now this is just me, but how does a trailer get to be a trailer? The hybridizer decides to register or call it a trailer, right? I suspect some of them could go either way and are just as happy being grown as standards. You run into this more with the older standard trailers, I believe. If you don't show and it doesn't want to conform, either get rid of it or let it grow the other way. Why knock yourself out. I have no idea how Violet Barn got Ramblin' Lassie to grow into a real trailer because it's really not inclined to ramble. I just put 3 in the pot. Diana