Set your coelus free...for free color in the garden!

Solenostemon has long been a mainstay of the container gardening set. Most people know the genus as Coleus, full of fascinating color patterns and outrageous foliage--with slightly less interesting flowers in spikes of purple (usually nipped off in favor of more leaf production). Almost everyone has some experience with them and likes to keep a few cultivars around to add pop and sizzle to container plantings.

Anyone growing them in pots knows the drill. Every now and then you've got to cut them back to keep them bushy and full. Those who have tried, know how easy it is start new plants by sticking cuttings. Unfortunately, this is oftentimes done only in fall or winter as a means of starting fresh plants for spring containers.

This year I'm trying something new. All the cuttings from my trimming today went INTO the garden. Some were stuck directly in the ground...a chartreuse cultivar with dark purple veins was stuck at the base of a beautiful purple Acer dissectum cultivar. I also stuck some in the ground in spots where exist foliage color was...well...a little green.

Most people assume that coleus are shade plants--and they do swimmingly in lower light (careful though, too low and they'll get leggy on you...if they do, whack them back and replant them in a brighter spot). Try them in sunnier spots as well. The increased light may even change your color palette a bit.

The most ambitious planting (and the one I suspect will do the best) was directly into my unsightly pile of compost and used potting soil. It is continuously moist and should provide the perfect environment for these cuttings to take off. Once established, they will beautify the pile, shade if from the drying action of the sun...and eventually die right in the cemetery (so to speak), adding their accumulated nutrients to the compost.

DOZENS of free plants from six mother pots...and many gaps filled. AND it couldn't be easier. Trim the plants, strip a couple rows of leaves from the bottom, poke a hole in the ground, stick the cutting and firm it in. Kept moist initially, they should root in a matter of days, and grow away into bushy, beautiful plants quickly.

Pop them around your garden and see what you think. They're free--if you don't like them where they are, move them or throw them in the compost. It doesn't get any better...

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