Croton Question

[Jerry@TreeZoo]

As I drive around town, I notice several public and some private plantings of crotons.  Most of these are the common varieties in very large beds or a hedge in a boulevard median, and many are sporting "sports".

My question is: Do common Croton varieties produce common sports or is each sport a possible new and exciting variety?  Am I likely to find something new and worthwhile if I go collect these sports?

Whadaya fink?

Jerry

[LJG]

What is a 'sport' in regards to crotons?

[Jerry@TreeZoo]

The way I understand it a sport is when you see a croton of a certain type, say a curly red leaf type, but on one bush you see a different color and shape leaf branching off of it.

Jerry

[Jeff Searle]

Jerry,

   Every croton,wheather it's a common variety or something that's really uncommon, can produce a sport. The common croton, Mammey, puts out alot of sports that I have seen, but most of the time they all look about the same. I have a large yellow and green plant here in the nursery that I was watching, because one of the shoots went from large oval shape to a long leaf that meausered 2 inches wide by 20 inches long. And the edge of the leaf was wavy like the variety "Piecrust". Well, after 3 leaves in a row, I thought that I had a new plant that had changed, and I was going to cut it off and root it. But, when the fourth leaf came out, it reverted back to the original shape leaf and I had nothing. I thought I had a winner for a moment.  Your best new varieties are from seed. My guess, is out of 100 seedlings, maybe only 5-10 will turn out to be something worth keeping. And out of those 10, there might be one really exceptional new variety.

Jeff