I mentioned in another post that this year there were only little six packs at Home Depot and Lowes for about a week. We had a late frost and both BB stores had nothing but dead coleus. They did not re-order.

My local nursery every year carried named coleus for 5.99 and 6.99 in 4" pots. This year they did not carry any coleus. The only ones I had was what I was able to save last year. Saving coleus is something I do not have a great success rate at but I do them every year. I use a old aquarium that seems to have worked out good last year. I will use it again this year with the ones I managed to get before the frost took the ones at the BB stores.

So It Is Time For Me to Start Babies.

I've started quite a few so far but many more to go.

I did some cuttings a week ago. When they root will pot them up in the greenhouse. Seems like I loose about 1/2 by spring.

and I thought I was early.

I'm obsessed and I think they may root better before they get any cold temps.

no babies with the move.. boo... but I saw a huge red head coleus at a local nursery the other day.. was hard to walk away

Yes I saw Coleus pot with the purple grass and purple coleus and they are calling them Fall Planters. Do they know this is the North? I know they are calling for our temps to stay in the 80s and 90s the rest of Sept but Oct we can get some pretty cool temps that will take the coleus down in one night.

To add to the insult they want 20.00 for the pots. That is crazy. They would have done better to put a Coral Bell and grass in the pots but they went the cheap real temp route with the coleus. At least the pots would have lasted until Dec if they had traded out the Coleus with a coral bell.

Need to start those babies too. Just need more hours in the day. Going to miss my tower in the driveway.

I hate winter, but love the action of taking Coleus cuttings! A few more weeks before I start doing that here, and I'm both excited about it & dreading it. Will take pics...!

Next week I'll take my cuttings and pot them as I sit at the outdoor table with the shade of the umbrella. It's an annual project but I take cuttings of them in February and again in April so it's worth the job. So many are about 3' tall already.

It's not much, but I did get started yesterday. Cut & stuck a few pieces of Perilla 'Magilla' into the pot with a birdnest fern (Asplenium nidus.) Not technically a Coleus, but often sold with them and mistaken for Coleus. Looks and "acts" just like Coleus except that I have a slightly harder time with success of cuttings, so I figured I'd start early on that one.

stilldew said:Need to start those babies too. Just need more hours in the day. Going to miss my tower in the driveway.

That is really gorgeous, Susan. Never seen that done before. Really impressive!

Thanks. I've tried a lot of other plants in the stacking tower container and the coleus seem to do the best of all.

Agreed

I don't think the Mary Jane stacking planters even come in the size I have anymore. I sat mine in a tub half filled with gravel and then ran a long piece of rebar down the center so it would not blow over in the driveway. I have another layer that I don't use since it would be too tall for me to water.

In preparation for the cutting of the stems, I've been trimming the big leaves off of my plants. With that done, nothing needed at the time of cutting except snip & stick (in water or pots.) Should be able to do that part so much more quickly, and all in 1 day. AND, I can see what's going on with each plant clearly enough to take a stem-count ahead of time.

LMBO @ what I wrote a month ago about "all in 1 day." I've spent about 5 hours on 3 diff days cutting off Coleus stems and trimming extra leaves, bringing them inside. Ended up with about 200 stems, doubled, tripled (and more in some) in bottles of water. I also stuck about 30-40 of them in pots that had "head room." It's insane in here! Bottles everywhere, all over kitchen table. 3 windows still have A/C's in them, so once I can spread out to those windows too, and take some to Mom's house, (and maybe to where I work) it will be a little less crazy.

There's a table by this window full of jars & bottles too, but hey, 2 fit up here until we decide we for sure won't get warm enough to need the fan for a while.


With all of the trimmed-off leaves on the ground, and woody stumps with a few scraggly stems not worth keeping, it looks like some insane Coleus-hater had a complete episode here. Ready for frost now here, possibly Friday night, definitely Saturday night!

For those who had to get started much earlier, how's it going?

Back in September I spent three days taking cuttings and potting them up so I wouldn't face it when I have so much else to do, like digging dahlias every day this week! I didn't count the cuttings but I'd guess there are at least 300 and they're all doing fine. So is the Iresene (inside and outside)! Still another coleus I have to get and it's glorious now.



No frost yet and none in the forecast through 11/27.

Two months inside and they look sickly. But that is to be expected. They lose the color they had outside. If I can just keep a few of them alive I will be happy.

Testing out the sunroom Temps. . With a lantana.. to see how cold it will get in there.. that is all I have for now