I've heard of this before with Emerald Love Sport, that it changes from the chimera to purple. To the best of my knowledge this is another sport, and the change is likely permanent. I had a plant called Kilauea, also a chimera, sport on me to solid pink with purple fantasy. It's hard to say what causes it. Chimeras historically have not "behaved" well for me and I now only keep one, Yukako.

Hope this helps,
Mark

Violetval -

as Mark mentioned - chimeras are not the most stable plants and if it sports, it is probably makes a good gift to the friends, no sense to hold to it.

The good way to keep it true - is to harvest and root the suckers, Emerald City chimera (do not remember what is chimera and what is original plant - Emerald City or Emerald Love) - suckers pretty often for me. To rejuvenate the old plant you can take the crown off - and root it, the stump will give you chimera suckers if you keep it alive.

There is a loss of vigor when the plant gets old - it can be a reason why it sported, second - if you do not repot it every 6 months - soil gets too acid - and here we go. If I see that the top starts blooming wrong - I would cut the top off - and let the suckers grow from under the older leaves - the ones that bloomed thue. The Chimera blossoms are tied to the way the tissue in a main stem is organised - it should be concentric circles of dark and light colored cells. If one of type of cells peters out with growth - you get solid color blooms, but the bottom of the stem is still organized properly - so the suckers will come true.

Irina

I'll try cutting off the top and hopefully will get a sucker or two that will bloom true. Thanks so much for your advice.