is this a virus?

[stateless]

did not even notice this plant was budding, when I noticed the buds they looked like thrips had gotten them, I am getting over a very bad thrip infestation. When i noticed the buds i sprayed them .it's blooming on both sides of the plant, one side looks fine, the other well I will take any advice, I've seperated it from the rest of my plants. the first 2 photos of are the color break on the one side, last photo is of bloom on other side which seems fine. appreciate any input,It bloomed fine for me last year and the flowers are not deformed.

[King Kjeldz]

cud be thrips but hmmm cant be too sure..u did fine so far

[Cjcorner]

I have always been urged to throw plants away that have color break. It is possible that the hot summer, rainy summer, chemicals sprayed while the plant was in bud...maybe even the fact that it is a plants first blooming and it hasn't got it's act together, can cause color break. There are many reasons. I segregate the plant and make absolutely sure a "color break" plant does not drip onto another plant. But a few plants I'd seriously considered destroying have turned out fine...one that remained messed up got thrown away. It is up to you in the end. Just be careful...these things are very contagious. I kept a rotting plant once and lost nearly a quarter of my collection a few years back.

[Roy]

It definitely doesn't look good. Color break in flowers can be cause by sprays & insects but... depending on how old the plant is & if a certified testing lab' is available, the best suggestion is to burn it. Generally speaking, if every flower shows the break, I class it as virus, if one one flower shows up, I look at other causes. The plant is quarantined for further testing. If the plant has only one flower the quarantine system applies.

[cakedaddy]

Good advice above! I will add that suspect leaf discoloration combined with either color break or flower deformity are an immediate cause for concern.
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[Halloamey]

I would quarantine it, I have observed this in many labiata hybrids, they seem to floer fine and grow well in consecutive years. This year I plan to do so tests with a kit I recently bought.
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[Brutal_Dreamer]

Good advice! Don't throw it out just yet. Keep it removed from others and see how it blooms the next time.

cheers,
BD

[tucker85]

While white streaks of color break are almost always an indication of a virus, I had always thought that the darker pigmented streaks may not be. The reason is that my plants with white color streaks were usually sickly looking plants that grew poorly while the plants I had with dark streaks seemed healthy. A few weeks ago I showed one of my plants with dark streaks to a commercial grower and she told me that it was a virus. It looked a lot like your plant. I guess the only way to tell for sure is to test it. But I've never had one tested.

[stateless]

thanks everyone for the input, it has one more sheath on it to open, so I might wait it out to see if there is improvement, but my gut reaction is bye bye. thanks again