Wow, Tiffany...Fittonia 'White Star' it is! Amazing. I spent the past week looking for that under "variegated foliage" I was not able to unearth one single clue.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I understand it's a water plant and will root from cutting...Fantastic!

Maria Elena

Happy to suggest. There's also a house plant forum here that's a little more active.

I noticed this plant was losing the white variegation (only green leaves coming in), so I placed it out in full sun. Unfortunately, didn't realize the Schefflera (a gift) it was cozied up to had scale & mealy! I washed down the Schefflera with soap & water, manually removed the scale from each leaf, changed the soil, fed and sprayed it. I didn't see anything on the Fittonia "White Star" so I just moved it.

Lo & behold, last week it began to look sticky. I noticed it was now crawling with ants...a sure sign of infestation. To my dismay, the stems were fully covered with yellow soft scale. I repeated the above treatment for this plant, as well, and segregated it.

Now I know a little more about this Fittonia. Live & learn. This plant is very resilient and is easily propagated by stem cutting ... Even the tiny stem I tore off the bottom when I planted the cutting rooted! I also saw this plant at my local Garden Center this weekend and it grows little purple flowers. Now, if only it would begin to grow it's beautiful checkered variegated leaves again. Perhaps some 20-20-20?

I don't know but I share your frustration with the ants. They *bring* scale & aphids to plants. Fittonia isn't usually a full sun plant, a bit of early morning or late evening sun would probably be most helpful, but I don't have the luxury of being able to leave such a tender plant outside all year, so it may be able to acclimate to that much sun and really love it, and I just don't know that.

Thank you for responding, Tiffany. You're correct ... I read Fittonia is for areas with bright, indirect sun. This site says "low light exposure will make the plants revert to green." My plant has always been outside and began to turn green once I put it out in more sun ... I can't figure it out.

http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/houseplants/nerve-plant/growing-nerve-plants.htm

I've placed it on my porch, where I originally had it when it looked beautiful. Hopefully, it will be happy and go back to being its lovely self.

All the best,

Maria Elena

Well, happy to report this baby not only survived the infestation, but has regained its beautiful variegation. The key was to keep it out of direct sun, but in bright light ... the porch! It looks great and is really flourishing.

Looks super!

I'm late to this thread but when I saw the picture of the plant in question, I immediately thought asystasia gangetica or variegated Ganges primrose. If your plant develops 5 lobed lilac or white flowers then you might reconsider the current fittonia ID.

There are two versions of Ganges primrose - one has a smooth leaf and the other a quilted one; the quilted looks like yours.

Here's a link:

http://tom-piergrossi.squarespace.com/buy-plants-a-b/asystasia-gangetica-youre-so-vein

June

Thank you, June!

Oh my goodness, my plant looks like that one, too. I indicated above that I did see the same plant with little purple, bell flowers at a local nursery. Now I don't know which one is mine because the leaf is the same on both plants ... yes, it is "quilted."

Let's see if it flowers. If so, I will post a photo.

I'm still having problems with the leaves reverting to green ... losing their white veins.

I can't figure this one out. It's on the porch receiving morning sun only, then filtered sun the rest of the day. If anyone has any ideas, please share.

Temps 78-92

Humidity 72-89%

Rainy season

I've been reading about variegated plants and it's a toss up! It seems that plants that want sun will lose the variegation in too much shade, but plants that want shade will lose their variegation with too much sun. Somewhat similar to gardeners who are told their plant is suffering because they're watering it too much or not enough.

I've also read that too much nitrogen can cause loss of variegation, so you might cut down on the fertilizer. One site recommended nutritionally poor soil.

My quilted variegated Ganges primrose gets bright light but no direct sun at all. I had problems when it was sited in a spot where it got AM sun.

June

Thanks again, June. When it first began losing variegation, I moved the plant to full sun for a little while and it just turned totally green & was attacked by soft-bodied yellow scale. When I moved it to the semi shaded area of the porch it began showing white veins again.

I'm going to move the plant to a spot where no direct morning sun hits at all, still outdoors. Let's see what happens in 2 weeks. I'll post a photo.

Nice plant. I'd have said Fittonia or Iresine (both in nettle family)

Just wanted to show all the tips are variegated again. The plant is huge and has doubled in size!

It had nothing to do with sunlight. What did I do? I repotted to a 6" pot & changed the soil to a light & airy, quick draining 50/50 mix of Miracle Gro African Violet Potting Mix and Miracle Gro Perlite. I was preparing the mix for my Thanksgiving Cactus & John Little Plumerias and had some left over.

The plant has literally doubled in size! The leaves and stems are also larger. I'm sure the root system just took off in this mix.

The African Violet mix contains the following ingredients: processed forest products, peat, coco-coir, compost, sphagnum moss, perlite, slow release NPK .21-.11-.16 fertilizer, wetting agent.