very interesting! i hope you find out. it looks pretty.

That is so cool. I once had a broad leaf plantain develop white striped leaves. I found a web site with a photo of a variegated bluebell but no info.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mertensia virginica variegated form

i wonder if your seeds will produce true. possibly not, sinc ei am sure it is a recessive trait. can you propogate by cuttings?

I don't think so because if they did, I suspect I'd have seen more this year, being that the plant has been around for 2 yrs.

Talked to a friend who's a landscape pro & he said it might be a "chimera." However, he's also game to see if somehow it couldn't be propogated (maybe like they do tissue cultures on some hostas?). I was just worried the white leaves might indicate some sort of disease that could run thru all my bluebells (and I have a l-o-t of them). It is neat looking, isn't it?

Interesting! All variegated foliage can be described as "chimeral". And all kinds of plants are tissue cultured, not just hostas. Its hard to tell from the picture, but on the leafs that are both green and white, does it appear that the green is in the middle of the leaf and the white forms and edge, irregular or otherwise? If the plant has this type of pattern there is a very good chance it could be propagated easily via tissue culture. If the variegation is more irregular, it probably won't tissue culture well, but it can be bred to a more regular variegation. This looks like a potententially commercial find- the sensitivity to sun isn't a big deal since this plant can exist in full shade. It may seem harsh, but if I had this opportunity, I would allow only the variegated part of the plant go to seed, eliminating some of the other existing plants and allowing only the offspring of this plant to go on to reproduce again. The next generation could prove interesting if the first one is not (variegation often is not recessive).

the white-flowered va. bluebells are really cool. out of a few million that grow along the c&o canal i've seen a few dozens here and there.
being that mertensia is not grown for the foliage i see no commercial potential for the plant like you might see with a hosta.the leaves are healthy looking for only a short time anyways before you start waiting for the ferns to cover them up.

I didn't realize this plant was an ephemeral, never having grown it. And, while it may therefore not command the attention or price tag of a flashy hosta, I still think it might be commercially viable. I, for one, would love to add a very early flowering variegate to my woodland garden. From what I'm reading, it sounds like it would be making a great prescence before a lot of other variegated plants are making much of a show at all.

A lot of verigation is the result of a virus-caused mutation, which is one of the reasons that a variegated plant can revert to all greeen. It will be interesting to see if it comes back next spring as variegated or not. If it does, you could end up with a neat colony of them.

Variegated foliage just isn't as competetive as all green foliage- the non-green parts don't make food and are more vulnerable to wind and sun damage- THIS is the main reason that variegated plants revert to all green plants or get swallowed up by plain green neighbors and that we would have very few variegated plants persisting for long without the intervention of gardeners. Viruses, of course, CAN cause variegation like effects- particularly of the mottled type- but these types of viruses are likely to get worse, not just up and dissappear. Mutation happens all the times and based on my own research it would seem that mostly the appearance of what would be deemed "variegation" by the average gardener (as opposed to an obvious discoloration effect by disease process) will have a genetic, not viral, cause.