Coleus - A Perfect Eye Candy

Coleus is a popular ornamental houseplant with beautiful variegated leaves. Its brightly colored leaves in different shades grab the attention instantaneously.



I started my first coleus in a container with a few young plants (a few inches in height) of different colors. I purchased them somewhere in late December (winters in North India). Not a particular reason of starting at that time except that I am a regular visitor of the nurseries in my area and whenever I see any new beautiful plant I just take it home; and I admit most of them are beautiful and one by one making way to my small garden :-).

Though you can take a single plant and make it bushier by trimming/pinching the top so that it starts branching out from the point where you pinched it; I liked to put a number of plants in one container to create a more colorful look.

I just put the four baby coleus plants equidistant in a medium sized container; though container majorly appeared empty with those young one's, I had the final look in my mind. They survived winter beautifully (in North India temperature sometimes also drops to 0-3 C at night) and kept growing. This is how they looked at the start of January. The container in the left side is the one I am talking about.

Propagation from cutting

Meanwhile I accidentally broke a few small branches while moving around the plants. I thought to experiment with the cutting - made a small hole in the soil in the same container and put it inside. I don't even remember if I used rooting hormone or not. Sometimes I just skip it when I feel a little lazy. :-) And from there I got another new plant. I am a little curious personality and even took out that cutting carefully (after around 20 days), removed the dirt and found new roots growing. Then I put it back and watered it, as if nothing happened :-). And seriously the plant did not mind it too. After around 1.5-2 months of planting them, I had the container full of colorful foliage as I imagined when I started.

A month more of growing and I even took cuttings to make two new coleus containers. They are doing good and I am amazed on how easy it is to propagate them.

Sunlight and Watering Needs

I have kept them in extreme heat outside, temperature slowly is raising to 40 C in the day time and they are doing well in the container with just a little of daily watering. You can grow them in ground in case daily watering is a concern because in summers leaves start drooping if I skip watering even for a single day. Except for regular watering, it does not ask for any other care. I have seen it doing well during winters as well as summers.

I think these are ideal for garden's of all sizes, can be grown in small containers OR combined to create a colorful effect in a large container OR can also be used as bordering/hedge.
My neighbors are also asking me what this beautiful plant is and I am loving it :-).