A 'Santana' Sport with
Lime-green Foliage

3^rd April 2025

'Santana' is a variegated cultivar; the leaves have green centres with wide yellow margins. It's a sport of 'Royal Red' and has the same deep maroon flowers. My plant is now quite old and behaves erratically: the variegation pattern is quite variable and has a habit of throwing sports. On the plus side, it never reverts to the normal dark green foliage of 'Royal Red'.

I've tried to propagate some of these sports. Several times I've found shoots with all yellow foliage and successfully struck cuttings. But they turned out to be very weak plants and never grew well enough to be worthwhile. They all succumbed to winter, even when kept under cover. This time I found a shoot that was more of a lime-green colour and managed to strike a couple of cuttings. They've survived and are already growing away. When they're bigger I'll plant one outside to test the hardiness.

A similar plant is 'Leela Kapila', which I think must also be a sport of 'Santana' with predominantly yellow leaves. I had this a few years ago but couldn't keep it alive. At the Longstock national collection it remained a very small plant, only a metre tall and much less vigorous than 'Santana', a consequence of the reduced photosynthetic capacity of the yellow leaves.

'Moonshine' is another yellow-leaved cultivar, although that one is perfectly robust and vigorous. It's certainly one worth seeking out if foliage is your thing. I hoping my lime-green sport of 'Santana' will also prove robust as such bright foliage adds year-round interest.

A sport of 'Santana'
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2025 Buddleja Diary Coming in 2025

1^st January 2025

Another season approaches in The Buddleja Garden. For now, here is one of my favourite photos fom 2023.

A pink seedling of 'Sungold'
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