Not Your Grandma's Coleus!!
Buy your coleus in the spring, but don't plant them out until time to plant melons and beans - when the soil is warm. They don't tolerate cold since their natural home is zone 10 where the winter temperature seldom drops below freezing. They prefer a well-drained loam soil. Since drainage is so important, they often suffer in clay soil unless extra organic matter is added. After they are planted, keep the plants carefully watered for the first couple of weeks and then only water them when the soil is dry one inch down. Stick your finger in the soil every few days to find out. The new varieties will do well in either sun or light to moderate shade in Minnesota. Some varieties can even take the noonday sun in Texas. Most plants have their best color in high light though some of the darker shades seem richer in full sun.
Coleus may still be grown from seed, but to get the vigorous, seldom-blooming varieties you will have to buy cutting-grown plants in spring. Many of the new coleus varieties are patented and carry a tag saying propagation prohibited. Raised to respect authority as I was, it took reading with my own eyes that it means you cannot propagate it for profit, but you can propagate it for your own use. Once you buy a plant you can keep it going as long as you like by taking cuttings in the fall and planting them out in the spring. Most of us won't bother, but I find it fun. The best way to deal with coleus is to grow the cuttings under lights during the winter in our climate as our light levels are too low for good growth on the windowsill, even for a shade plant. When the plants begin to get leggy, take new cuttings and grow them on until they, too, get leggy, then repeat the process. That way you will have new young plants when the ground warms enough to put them out next year.
Finally, the only thing left is cut flowers. Well, they aren't grown for their flowers, but they make beautiful additions to any bouquet or can be a multi-colored bouquet on their own. Since they root readily in water, they last as long or longer than the flowering plants in the same arrangement.
Because they last so long, I keep a cutting or two
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