Hardly any posting on the Coleus forum, so thought I might give the Annuals forum a try.

After admiring coleus for several years without growing any myself, although I am a fervent admirer of foliage plants, I have decided to concentrate my patio gardening next spring with a vibrant array of coleus plants. I have predominately shady areas on my large patio - some getting a little morning sun; others getting late, late afternoon sun and even a larger area with dappled sunlight through latticework. So I believe a variety of shade loving and sun lovers to a degree will fit in nicely.

Nearly all of my gardening is done in containers - large, small and intermediate - as I no longer have the physical ability to dig and spade in the ground. Nor to get down or up or to crawl around like I have done for years and years. Those days are gone forever unfortunately.

I'm fairly certain that a hundred gardeners would come up with very different favorites as there are so many color arrangements and types to choose from. I would like to try a few of the so-called giant leafed ones but would probably concentrate on the shorter types.

My first preference is solid colors: red, orange, lime green, pale yellow. Some of the dark purples look appealing. Not sure about the chocolate colored ones, altho they do look good on internet ads, but not sure how they would appear in the garden. However, I am open to other color combinations - willing to try something new.

I will try our only local outlets this spring for plants: Home Depot and Walmart, but I feel they mostly carry the "run of the mill" color assortments, but maybe I'll find some that appeal to me.

I live in NW PA with long winters and a relatively short growing season - zone 5A or 5B, can't remember for sure which it is.

Would like to hear from experienced coleus growers the ones you prefer and why. If anyone has any cuttings for sale, or for postage, or for whatever - next spring, I would like to hear what you have available. While I plan to buy a few packets of seeds and a few plants, I find plants online accompanied by shipping/handling costs are a little too steep for my humble gardening budget.

Would greatly appreciate hearing from one and all. Thanks for listening to an old, old man who has had a passion for gardening since early teen years - that would be about 77 years ago when I started to garden.

Don

Don, I didn't appreciate coleus until about three years ago, so am not as experienced with all the varieties as others on this site. But I purchased a small pot of coleus 'Inferno' in 2018 and it grew so large, I was shocked! Not sure if you want something that large. Here is a picture of it from August 2018. I love the bronze color and it can take sun or shade, although the color is more intense in shade.


Coleus is one of the easiest plants to take cuttings from. So if you have any room inside near a window, you can grow your own cuttings in winter and then plant outside the following spring. I just took some cuttings about 3-4 inches long, took off the lower leaves, dipped the cut end in rooting hormone, and planted in pots. Once I even threw a cutting on the ground and it started to grow. That is how easy coleus is to start even without rooting hormone.

The tip cuttings from the plant I bought in 2018 were placed by my French doors in the kitchen and over-wintered. We did put a light over them for extra hours to make up for the short daylight hours. All I had to do was water occasionally and when they got leggy I would give them a hair cut so they would stay compact and bush out a little.


Here is a picture showing how large those cuttings got this summer.


In 2017, I purchased the coleus 'Burgundy Wedding Train'. What a cute thing that was and it was great in a pot with a spike in the middle.

Beautiful plants you have! Do you remember where you bought the varieties you mentioned? I have been looking at several nurseries on the internet - some of which were mentioned by coleus forum growers' postings. Will have to wait for spring before ordering any, but just wondered if you had a preference. Winter weather has already arrived here, three or four light snowfalls already, but surely many more to come. We get the snow effect from Lake Erie as we live about 35 miles south of it,

A friend from church, knowing how much I enjoy plants, both indoors and outdoors, gave me a couple of coleus plants a short time ago. One in particular was bright red, really pretty and I have already taken three cuttings from it and trying to root them in water. I have no idea what the name of it is, but I would like to order some with names so I can keep track of them.

Thanks for your input; so far, you have been the only one to respond and I appreciate it.

Thanks, I got both of my coleus from a local nursery called Hasting Plants in Mt. Vernon, Indiana. Unfortunately, they don't have online sales. Her 2019 newsletter says that 'Inferno' was very popular.

Glad to hear that you are taking cuttings. I hope they do well for you.

Don,
Do you have any Amish greenhouses in your area? Here in Lancaster County, they are a source of many beautiful types of Coleus.

Carol - thanks for the tip. Yes, there is a large one real close to me; in fact, I usually buy most of my annuals from them in the spring. They are not open year-round, but will check them out in the spring. They have five or six greenhouses and hopefully they will carry some coleus. Usually I am looking for tomato and green pepper plants, petunias, verbena, lantana and the like but will certainly look more closely at their other offerings.

In spring, the Amish greenhouses in Lancaster County usually sell Coleus in little four packs, often with a choice of leaf types: all four different or all four the same. They grow very quickly, sometimes into huge plants.

Hi Don, glad you are joining the Annual thread. Love hearing about successes of any kind.
I enjoy planting combination pots. Coleus was an outstanding performer this year in pots located in both sun & shade.
Wish I could share the coleus variety names, but didn't save the tags.
This pot was in full, blaring southfacing sun. I would rotate it a quarter turn each week. Surprised how well coleus did.


I saw this idea at our local nursery in early Spring. Can you imagine by autumn how beautiful it would be?

This planter was kept in full shade and did exceptionally well. The leaf size was very large.

Oh, I forgot to say, I bought my coleus at our local Walmart.

Cathy - beautiful plants you have. At this point, from just looking at pictures rather than actually live plants, my first choice would be pretty much solid colors....leaning specially toward reds and oranges - also like the lime green and deep purple ones. Some of the ones with chocolate and red combinations appeal to me also. Oh, well, I guess you might say that I like most of the combinations I've seen. While some of the deep purple and chocolate ones look nice in pictures I'm not sure how well they would show up in the garden being so dark in color.

Needless to say, I am going to try whatever combinations I can find with this spring and let you know if and why I've changed my mind about color preferences.

Thanks for sharing.

Feel free to contact me in May for cuttings, rooted or not - your preference. I have many solid colors and many others. It's fun to share.

Arlene, Thank you so much for your offer of cuttings next May. I will be looking forward to seeing what cuttings you have available.

Mine tolerate December and January, then put on growth in mid February. By April they need cutting so they'll need a home and I can take photos. I don't grow any of the Kong series (the huge ones). This red one gets huge enough for me.

pirl said:Mine tolerate December and January, then put on growth in mid February. By April they need cutting so they'll need a home and I can take photos. I don't grow any of the Kong series (the huge ones). This red one gets huge enough for me.

Amazing! I thought Coleus was strictly annual in zones as cold as yours! The Coleus in my zone 6b garden collapsed with the first hard frost.

That's not a current photo! Mine went to coleus heaven with the first frost.

I was thinking the same thing, Carol, lol. I was going to ask Arlene what kind of coleus that was in the picture (a great picture by the way! I love that color!) All of my coleus have been done since the end of October.

Arlene, I would hope to get a cutting or two from that beautiful red one of youea next spring. Have seen several pics of red ones and I also like some of the orange ones as well. I am thinking that maybe one of the lime ones would contrast nicely with red and perhaps a chocolate one next to one of orange ones would look nice. As I said before, though, I will be looking forward to any color combination you might wish to share with me next spring.

I have had good luck with seeds from Swallowtail and their offering of coleus seed colors have influenced my fondness for certain colors, but my luck with seeds is not nearly as good as with cuttings - so will probably order a couple of seed packets, but will concentrate on cuttings as my main source for growing coleus - especially as I understand that coleus seeds are so small.

The cooler nights bring the end to coleuses, caladiums and hostas. I do take cuttings of the coleus to be sure I'll have them again next year and plant them in pots of soil, not in water.

Here are some I had a few years ago. The cuttings I kept in water did not do well at all.




My all time favorite is Felix (I have lots of cuttings):

Simply gorgeous, Arlene! I only discovered the beauty of coleus a couple of years ago. It will be planted more in my flower beds from now on.