Variegation in horticulture: making light of plants

What are variegated plants, where do they come from, and how do they develop and thrive? They are a collection of mottled, checkered, spotted, blotchy, multi-colored, or variegated foliage plants. It's like having a brightly colored plant in flower all year long without the flowers.

By definition, "variegated" means to have discrete markings of different colors or white stripes on the plant's leaves. The word more often applies to the foliage of plants that we have in our homes' interior. The most common variegation colors are white, light green, and pink.

Chimeral variegation is by far the mo...