My wife, Gerrie, cherishes a tree form azalea rooted from an old planting of azaleas at the Hall House a few years ago.

Recently we noticed it had flowers on one edge of the shrub were a completely different color. Although it’s a rare occurrence, some flowering shrubs will produce a “sport” or different color flowers and shapes on the same branch.

The sporting is sometimes caused by a virus or a genetic mutation within the plant. Some camellia sasanqua varieties are well known to produce multiple bloom colors.

There is probably an apple that we all have eaten that derived from a sport.  Many apple varieties on the market were derived from sports or mutations.