Why we fell in love with Coleus this summer!

"Wizard's Mix" coleus

This spring, I picked up a tray of coleus starts labeled "Wizard's Mix", from our local Hewitt's Garden Center. I wasn't familiar with coleus, but the vibrant, trippy colors of the foliage called out to me, and finding such a colorful plant for the shade is a real blessing for our heavily shaded yard!

I have this "problem" (depending on who you ask) where I can't resist propagating plants. I learned early that coleus needs to be pinched to encourage bushy growth, and I couldn't stand the idea of throwing away so many perfectly good pant tips. So I filled some mason jars with water and plopped the cut coleus ends on the window sill. Roots emerged after a week or two, so I planted them in another shady garden bed, and they did so well that I just kept going, all summer long! I pinch the tops off all the existing plants as soon as they're three or four inches long, root them, and find new places to put them around the yard (or on the roadside stand to share)!

I imagine the grower had names for each variety, but since they weren't labeled specifically, I dubbed them with my own monikers: watermelon, bloodstain, camouflage, white-heart, and key-lime.

It was so great to add some extra color and texture to our shade gardens this year, you can bet we'll be on the lookout for these again next spring!

For a little more info, check out our page dedicated to Coleus.