We came from here!
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1042049/#new
Welcome aboard to the new 2011 COLEUS series!
Annabell, this is a Kong.. it was huge in the garden.. I love this plant, so rich in color and so easy to do cuttings or start seed!
I'm new to these, starting from seed, but did have a couple different coleus last year, and I'm not familiar with the Kong. Is it a shade variety or sun? It's very pretty! I like it! The leaves look like velvet!
It can go sun or shade, but I think it likes a partly sunny area better. Just depends on how intense your summer is.
Thanks! Guess I better get some seeds started, as I just happen to have a pkg of mixed, lol! Maybe I'll get lucky and Kong will be one of them!
I have not seen Kong seed yet.. but good luck and have fun if you find them! They are an awesome plant! Look for them in the nurseries and take cuttings later.
Cuttings are easy to do.. snip, dip and poke! That is snip a cutting, dip the stem in rooting hormones and then poke the cutting into a cell pak and water as needed
I agree, they are easy. I have found that here where it stays cold forever we do well with seeds under lights.
I like the look of Kongs but found that if we get windy here they break easily as their leaves are sooooo big.
I will hunt for some of my seedling photo's from last year. I germinate on a heat mat that starts them well and then prick them out into deep root trainers that are the 72 per flat size. With some good air movement and lights I can get good plants growing and damping off is minimal.
These are very forgiving cheerful plants with lots of color.
Ann
Great plants everybody!
Haven't been on the forums for awhile...time to start sharing pix again. Here is one. Not a good pic, but does show the variety of colors on a plant.
Daniel
'Smoldering'
Hi Dan!
show us the "money".. honey!
Money?
Another pic would be better,lol>
Strange coloring on a Florida Sun Rose
Thats rich there Dan! Keep 'em coming!
Thanks for the new thread and the great photos. THey are inspiring.
My greenhouse is soggy this winter, its been a wet one here on the Islands. N.W. B.C.
Welcome aboard enyeholt! Its 50 above here and snny, but still have snow on the ground. I have a pot full of new coleus plants started.. Im gonna have to transplant them soon.
Gotta sow my loofas today... so first things first.
SPRING! A blast of warm air greeted me today when I went outside. Buds and sprouts on everything.
How do you grow those loofas BB?
Daniel
A half egg-carton of tiny coleui
YEAH!! YEP spring is in.. hoping it can continue to beat the cold to a pulp now!
For loofas go here Dan....
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1118075/
It will link back to years gone by and take you to the present.. I finally soed mine for this year.. put 24 peat pots up with 3-4 seeds in each. Loofa do not like to get transplanted so the peat pots is the best choice... I put the 24 pots on a metal tray and covered them with saran. C'mon over and join the fun.
*snickers* coleui! Nice babies love that red!
Keep them coming!!
Lots of seeds sowing going on everywhere. I think I sowed a few coleus seeds. Getting cold again. Maybe we just might get an early Spring, maybe.
Here is another one, a pot in early summer.
Daniel
YUM!! I especially like that rusty red.. Id say there all on my "gimme" list though! All lovely!
We got a skiff of snow and icey patches.. the plow hit the road scraping ice this morning.
Its coming, but I thin you will get more of it then me since it appears to be in your line of storm traffic.
Hi all...
I am a first year gardener, so hope everyone has patience with me.....I think I'm gonna need it!
I would love to put some coleus in a window box under my kitchen window this spring. The window box is on the north side of the house, and in early morning maybe an hour of sunlight, and late evening maybe an hour of sunlight. This is in the summer time. What type of coleus would do best in very little sunlight, and what would be a good plant to plant with it? And if I started coleus from seed say in my basement, how close to the florescent light do they need to be, and how long should I keep the light on?
Oh, I am in zone 5...
Thanks for any and all info!
(Ok, it did it again.. Dave, I dont know, but Im having connectivity probs... I type in, send and nada, then I do it again.. then it sends.. its getting annoying.. I think I need to get off and debug.)
As I was tryign to say to sm, HOWDY! Welcome aboard! I think the weather has my microchips in a bunch we lost power earlyer adn staying on Daves today has been interesting if to say the least.. I kep haviong to post twice and its not been fun!) But anyway, welcome!
Im not so sure the north window indoors is the best place. While I grow mine indoors, I have them under lights a goodly part of the day. North side is striking me as way to shady, but perhaps soemone else can offer their two bits!
I hacve new babies started in a pot that was seed from a fallen older plant that was a cutting of stock I had the previous year. I am watering sparingly so as not to drowned the little shaffers! Hoping I can transplant them later.
All I can say is just keep trying different things, but dont stray too far from the seed instructions on your packet! Gardening is an event adn an experience and you cant have the event with out trying the experience and every day and season is different!
Read, take pics of what you do and notes.. stay tuned here and learn through the other gardeners here!
Im what I call a Plunkit gardener.. I keep popping in some seed or another untill something grows and usually grow a lot of this and that of what ever I can, but my mainstay in my garden is daylilies. I grow an array of annuals, veggies and perennials and been doign this thing for many many moons. I dont plant by the moon, just sow it and grow it! Seasonally. Got some ground for veggies, wierd wild things and I do a bunch of containers.
So welcome aboard.. let us know how things go!
I will be back later with more pics! Oh, did I mention, take pics and show and tell!
babies!!
I just planted 3 different types of Coleus yesterday.
Fairway Salmon: small leaves with a salmon rose center & creamy mottled geen marked leaves on extra-compact plants- dwarf it says.
Wizard Mix: the Wizard mix are small leaved with compact strong plants.
Black Dragon: have rumpled deep purple to maroon leeaves quilled aroundd raised central medallion which may be flecked with pink or violet. Who can resist a write-up like that ...
I am a novice at these, not an expert, I just copied what Veseys packages said about them. Lets see what really happens!
Thanks for the tip about the huge leaves and the wind damage Annabelle. Here on Haida Gwaii (QCI) BC the wind is a big factor.
I will try to set these where they get some protection, but it seems they are small leaved. Who knows.
Am excited to get a nice selection of these. I have started them in a clear plastic organic greens salad container with the lid placed loosely on top. I will get them to the greenhouse when they get rolling, but its fun to have them near.
sm welcome. I suggest you start your coleus under lights as you said, then keep them in containers where you can move them to more light from time to time, the North window may not be enough for them. I am saying keep them mobile, so you can give them more sun if they need it. Too much sun is worse than not quite enough for mature coleus, in my opinion. A companion plant for them in low light - that s another matter. Anyone....
Re: the photo
my yard looks so tidy in the dark!
VERRRRY VERRRRRRY TIDY!! THAT IS GORGEOUS!
I got peeps under lights right now...
This guy says... "you wanna peice of me?"
Do you guys start any from seeds or take cuttings?
I love the lime green ones and the really darks ones I have seen online.
I do both and have better luck with cuttings
bluegrassmom,
Seeds are difficult for me. I've only had a couple germinate out of many sowings, so they are fussy. Cuttings are much easier. They root fastest in water, sometimes in as little as 2 days.
Here is a Alabama sunset Coleus.
Send me yer water! LOL! Mine is real hard...
Mine is so hard that it is off the "hardness" scale, really. Do you have a well? That water is very good for my plants.
Florida Sun Rose
Mine is so hard it dont need a glass...iron, lime, calcium, and the God knows what from the ag life.... I need to invent a "peel" to remove the film that builds up if you use a glass.
Used to drink it..... about a decade ago it was good tasting.. but its the God knows whats in it from the neighboring ags that concerns me. Yano, things like nitrates, eColi.. or what have you... Some people around here really need to clean up their
a-hem .. animal poo. It is sickening. Got one here that thinks he is building Mount Rushmore....some people around here persist on doing stupid with animal waste.
And yea, its a well... our water table is very high here. And regrettably we have moved on to purified septic water in bottles. Which is inconsistant in tase even if from the same company.. hmmm why is that?
GAH-rooooos!
But as you say, the plants love it. Well some do.. sometimes when watering though,
there is sudden death on plants. So that tells me the underground aquifier flows in spurts of contaminants, or so I suspect. Why else would it do that?
where do you all find a good selection of seeds for the coleus??
Coleus is very easy to start by seed.. Fe tthe multi colored seed packets and you will have lots of variety!
Once you get them growing, take cuttings.. They are ez-peazy to root too!
I just chuck the seed on top of the soil in a pot or flat or whatever...you need to water sparignly when they first germ so not to rot them but after they get some growth you can transplant them and water them better and zoom!
I have never started coleus before. Can I just stick the coleus cutting directly in the ground in flower bed? I just poked in 2 cuttings in bed yesterday afternoon. They are still firm and fresh in the morning. I am just curious how eager they wanted to grow.
You can do that.. I usually dip them in rootnig hormone then poke them in a flat full of potting mixture.
Some people start them in water. I have never tried that.
These cuttings were started in water from over-wintered coleus plants on 4-16-11, transplanted into soil 4-28-11(left side). Right side started in water 4-28 and into soil 5-9-11. 20 more cutting then started in water, hopefully into soil within a couple of weeks.
i need off get off my duff and do some cuttings and trannies... my overwinteredes are looking long and straggly....need to do a lot of things...oy....
Wish my chichens woudl herry up on their rototilling.. then I could plant my maters too..
Back in a while!
Here is the update about the two cuttings sticked directly to the flower bed. One of it went soggy and flopped over under the afternoon sun, I don't think it will make it. But the other cutting from a "Prove Winner" plant was still firm and standing. The mother plant is still small, I will wait for it to get bigger to do more cuttings.
Mist the leaves...
Does anyone have some nice size cuttings to trade?
Dreamjourney
When ever you take a cutting you have to protect it from extreem of anything. Can you shade the cutting with a pot or stick from the hot sun? I would keep it in a pot that you can move for a bit untill it starts growing. The sun and wind will make cuttings done outside more challenging. Can you move them indoors for a bit to give them a good start? They need to obtain moisture from somewhere and misting may help.
I start them in water too and just keep the cutting in water till I see 4 or so small roots about 1/2 and inch long and then move them to a pot or outside. If you wait untill the roots are really long and going brown they are more difficult to get going in soil.
Just keep trying and you will be successful! When using rooting hormone I always poke a hole first and then do my best not to scrape the powder off as I put it in the soil. Again misting can help so can keeping them in a plastic bag to help retain moisture untill they can obtain it from the soil with roots.
Jmorth has done a lovely job with the groups in the photos you will be able to too just keep trying.
Alberta Ann
Has anyone tried this coleus yet? I found it at a Meijer's store. It's grown by Elzinga & Hoeksema Greenhouses in MI. The tag says Kaleidoscope of Color ~ nettle like foliage in an array of exotic colors and textures. The colors are orange, burgundy and lime green.
