Variegated Plant Discoveries: The Stories Behind Two Stunning Sports

Nature occasionally produces “sports”—spontaneous mutations with striking foliage. Plant hunters cherish these rarities. Two West Coast introductions reveal how curiosity and persistence bring them to market.

Variegated Cat Grass: A Transatlantic Journey

Hordeum vulgare variegate—green-and-white striped annual barley. Alice Doyle (Log House Plants) dubbed it “variegated cat grass” (cats prefer it over houseplants).

Dutch breeder Kees Fahine discovered it in a Seed Savers Exchange yearbook from a Midwestern U.S. grower. Years of stabilization in the Netherlands brought it back to the U.S. for its West Coast debut—now in high demand.

Fatsia japonica ‘Spider’s Web’: A Japanese Legacy

Mounding 5-ft evergreen, white-dusted leaves. Hardy zones 7–9; greenhouse-perfect elsewhere.

In 1989, Dan Heims (Terra Nova Nurseries) spotted it in Dr. Masato Yokoi’s garden. Dr. Yokoi shared a cryptic lesson from his sensei: “If you look, you will learn.”

Heims noticed a basal shoot, took a cutting, spent six years achieving tissue culture. Now U.S. gardeners enjoy this living heirloom.

The Lesson

Sports reward observation. Behind every variegated marvel is someone who looked—and acted. Take a bow for the spotters.