Coleus Add Constant Color To Your Backyard Garden

Coleus is a highly prized annual plant known for it’s striking foliage and easy to grow nature. They appeal to many gardeners as a ’must in the garden’ because Coleus offer such a wide array of vibrant leaf colors, patterns, and plant habit. There are hundreds upon hundreds of varieties cultivated for today’s market!

The leaf forms of Coleus offer up some amazing detail. Attractive, multi-colored upper leaves dazzle and dance for your pleasure. The underside of Coleus leaves are also colored, and usually it is a solid shade derived from a color component from the topside of the leaves. For some Coleus varieties, this is a complement ~ one to the other, while some create a pleasing color contrast. Coleus are sensational when the wind blows! Nature’s kaleidoscope!

Coleus plants present an astonishing amount of different leaf shapes and sizes. Broad or thin, ruffled or bibbed, serrated or smooth. The plants themselves grow in an army of forms. Compact or cascading, bushy or tall, spreading or prostrate.

Above all, it is the staggering amount of colors that abound in the Coleus family that excites the gardener ~ and ignites the garden! Coleus is such a versatile, jovial plant that any hanging basket, container, or garden can accommodate them effortlessly. I believe Coleus just may be the most versatile plant that you can grow!

Many gardeners are already familiar with growing colorful Coleus plants. They have been admired and cultivated for decades. Coleus do produce a nice flower spike, but generally, Coleus are grown because of their awesome foliage! Traditionally, Coleus are allocated to a shady location of the porch or landscape ~ dwelling in the dark. Dimly lit areas come alive when accented with the vivid colors and energetic patterns that Coleus freely display.

Improvements to Coleus breeding have produced new varieties that have enabled these animated beauties to move from the shadows into the spotlight.

Advancements have made it possible for Coleus to adapt readily to part sun and even full sun exposure!

Coleus with darker leaf colors seem to acclimate and perform better if grown in brighter areas than do their paler-colored counterparts. Coleus plants grown in sunnier areas will require more moisture than in sheltered, shady spots. Color retention in the leaves will gradually decrease for Coleus plants grown in a full sun situation.

Rule of thumb ~ the darker the area - the more vibrant the color. That is not to say that Coleus are forever regulated to the somber spot of the landscape. Quite to the contrary!

Gardeners today can enjoy the breathtaking beauty of Coleus that are specifically engineered to live their life happily and undaunted in a bright, sunny place.

Coleus have a very short list of likes and dislikes. Treat Coleus as an annual plant, as frost usually signals their demise. They prefer well-drained, moist soil with an application of nitrogen-rich fertilizer once a month. Beyond regular watering, Coleus demand very little. Check your Coleus plant periodically for signs of whitefly, mites, aphids and occasionally slugs. The newer varieties of Coleus are bred to resist insects and disease.