Janos,

Yes, from what I have been told by other hybridizers, the pod parent must have variegated foliage . Less than 5% of the resulting seedlings will  have variegated foliage. This is what have found also.

When I first tried hybridzing years ago, I did manage to get a pod on pallida variegata, commonly called ZEBRA. I crossed it with an old diploid variety. The pod only produced 6 seeds and the none of the seedling were variegated, just my luck!

Robert Woodhull

Atlanta, Georgia, Zone 7b