By Annestanton
West Yorkshire,
United Kingdom 
I have a beautiful variegated Acer (platanoides drummondii) which for the first time in 20 years has changed it's variegation. It's still there, just, but instead of the beautiful creamy white and lime green leaf colouration it's a dull lime green and mid green. I did have the tree topped and reshaped in February and at first thought the possible shock of this precipitated the change in colour but I also have a variegated Harlequin honeysuckle whose new leaves are all plain green.
The honeysuckle has also had a shock as it had it's bark stripped by a squirrel a couple of months ago, my neighbour's honeysuckle as well. We've always had squirrels in the garden but they've never done this before. Amazingly the honeysuckle didn't die. So do you think it's the shock to both and they will return to normal next year or could it be the unusually dry winter we've had?
31 May, 2012
Answers
Mine is just the same, maybe now we,ve had some sun it will get better as Bamboo says
31 May, 2012
Teh cause of the poor variegation is most likely to be low light levels this year, well, up until the last week or so. Its been cold, dull and damp for weeks, which isn't how its supposed to be in the UK during April and May - the variegation should improve as the leaves get larger now that light levels have improved.
31 May, 2012