The colorful bushes of Coleus are able to decorate gardens in the summer and window sills in winter. Unpretentious decorative foliage nettles are popular with gardeners and landscape decorators. Colorful coloring allows you to choose a plant for every taste. And the ease of reproduction is to keep your favorite bush in your flower garden for many years.
Plant description
Coleus in Latin means a case. What is the reason for this designation is unknown. These colorful flowers belong to the family Iasnatkovye. Homeland flower tropical forests of Africa and Asia. From the tropics, decorative nettles retained their requirements in home care for high humidity, heat and lighting. These factors affect the colorfulness and contrast of the color of its leaves.
Variety of color
Coleus is a low shrub. Shoots tetrahedral, wood at the base. Leaves are heart-shaped, about 6 cm long, with denticles along the edges. The color of the leaf plates combines green, yellow, red, pink and burgundy. Inflorescences of exotics most often do not constitute a decorative value.
In the garden, using the bright color of exotic bushes, you can create contrasting spots on the flower beds, or combine several shrubs with each other. In a single version, they look spectacular in large tubs or on the open ground.
Colorful flowerbed
Types of Coleus for the Garden
Coleus has more than 400 species, hybrid and species. They are very diverse in leaf shape, color and size of the bush.
Coleus Blume
The founder of many hybrid varieties. The Blume variety includes many species with different colors. They are united only by the shape of the leaf - ovoid with a pointed end. The teeth along the edges are not sharp, but rounded. The coloring of sheet plates is the most diverse. This variety of coleus combines red, pink, cream, white, yellow, purple, black, brown-yellow palette. It grows as a garden and indoor plants. In leaving unpretentious, more often propagated by cuttings. Colorful and widespread varieties of Blume - dawn, fun, orange.
Coleus Black Dragon
Unusual coloring was loved by many. Dark violet-burgundy color of leaves sometimes with a green fringing, or with a pink spot. The wavy shape of its velvet leaves (a property of hybrid varieties) adds beauty to this shrub. Used in contrasting compositions of the garden. It winters well on the windowsills of apartments. Propagated by cuttings, demanding of high humidity.
Coleus Renault or Renelt
Not a very tall shrub, more used as ampelous. The color of the leaves is different, but the veins of the Renault Coleus are always crimson or purple-red. The appearance is also interesting in that by autumn it can change the color of its leaves several times.
Coleus the Dog
Dog coleus, popularly referred to as Shporotsvetik or plectrantus. The plant is very similar in appearance to a coleus and is also unpretentious. The flower acquired an interesting name because of its pronounced smell. The flower begins to exude a strong aroma, you only need to touch its leaves. Spore flowers planted around the perimeter of the bed protect the crop from animals, insects and snakes, which do not like the aroma of this bush.
Coleus Forskolia
Tropical mint, originally from Thailand. Used in Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine. The plant has a wide range of medical uses - diseases of the respiratory tract, cardiovascular system and digestive tract.
Important! Its decorativeness is not inferior to other varieties - a bright combination of purple and bright green color on round leaves, similar in shape to mint.
Avatar
A variety that is called royal. Its leaves stand out among other species in large sizes. The color shimmers on the leaf, and the palette changes from green to maroon. But in appearance, his proximity to the kings ends. In leaving Avatar is also unpretentious. But nutritious soil and regular feeding should be to maintain the beauty of its large leaves.
Coleus: growing conditions
Bright and healthy appearance due to proper care.
Circumcision of the bush is possible throughout the entire period of active growth.
To bright bush pleased with its color all season, it is important to take care of such conditions:
- Lighting is important to maintain the saturation of the colorful leaves. In the morning, the lighting should be bright and plentiful. After lunch, partial shade is welcome.
- The temperature for a thermophilic plant should not be lower than 18 ° C in summer and not lower than 12 ° C in winter.
- Watering is necessary frequent and plentiful. Exot loves moisture very much, so frequent spraying will also benefit him.
- You need to maintain a bright color with regular top dressing: weekly in the summer and monthly in the winter.
Important! Every year after a dormant period, to stimulate the growth of beautiful shoots, it is necessary to trim the coleus. Pinch a young bush for density and bushiness. And perennial bushes are cut to update the crown.
Growing Coleus from Seeds
You need to sow seeds at the end of March, so that by the time of planting in the open ground get a large and strong bush. A mixture of soil needs a light and nutritious. The combination of turf land, peat and humus will provide small seeds with everything necessary for seedlings. You do not need to deepen the seeds into the soil, you can lightly sprinkle them with sand. Seedlings should germinate under glass in a warm environment with low light. Daily need to monitor soil moisture.
Seedlings
With the advent of the first shoots, the glass needs to be removed and the pots moved to a well-lit place. The optimum temperature for seedlings is 19 degrees.
It's important to know! Direct sunlight is detrimental to seedlings.
When the seedlings turn a month old, she is ready to dive into individual pots of small diameter (up to 7 cm). Care for such seedlings is necessary as an adult plant. At two months of age, nettle should be transplanted into a larger pot with a diameter of up to 12 cm and pinch the apical shoot for bushiness.
Coleus: planting and care in the open ground
Coleus is a heat-loving flower, planting should be carried out in well-heated soil, without a possible sharp drop in temperature and frost. It is better to plant in the evening. The place should be sunny and protected from the wind.
Sand, peat, turf and leafy soil should be mixed in equal parts and prepared for planting seedlings. Small planting pits, into which seedlings will be transported, and prepared soil mixture to be added, should be dug at the time of transplantation.
Interesting! The plant is well adjacent to closely planted bushes of its counterparts, as well as with other garden plants.
Watering is an important part of care
After planting, it is immediately necessary to water the seedlings abundantly. Coleus is watered with settled warm water, often and abundantly. After watering, you need to loosen the soil around the bush and remove weeds.
In winter, when coleus is at home indoor plants, watering must be reduced. But do not allow the drying of an earthen coma.
It's important to know! The wrong watering regime will be reflected on the leaves of the plant - they become sluggish.
Grade jade
Top dressing
You need to fertilize the flower every seven days, from the beginning of spring awakening to autumn cold weather. In the autumn-winter period, complementary foods are added once a month in dilute form (50% of the amount indicated in the description). For complementary foods, alternate organics with mineral fertilizer. Be sure to feed nitrogen in early spring for a juicy color and contrasting transitions of foliage.
Flowering care
Flowering is always an energy-intensive process. And since the flowering of coleus does not represent any decorative effect, it is necessary to preserve the plant's strength reserves for the growth of greenery than harvesting seeds.
Exot blooms will be long spikelets with small lilac flowers
From the very beginning of the spikelet, it should be removed. The cut point does not need to be processed.
Coleus - dormant care
Caring for coleus at home is even easier than summer. Watering in winter is reduced. More important in winter will be air humidity. Regular spraying and remoteness from heating appliances will help maintain the decorative shrub until spring.
The thermophilic phyto-friend will feel comfortable at 16-18 ° C in winter. Lowering temperatures in winter below 12 ° C can cause the leaves to drop on the bush. Lighting should be sufficient, but without direct sunlight.
It's important to know! You need to feed once a month, minerals and organics alternately.
In February, the period of active awakening of the plant begins. The bush is cut, they begin to increase watering and bait. If you plan to plant the same bush for the summer in open ground, you need to do a full pruning of shoots. Leaving 5-6 eyes for updating, after active growth, you can get a young plant with a well-developed root mass. Transplanting such a bush into open ground does not require a period of adaptation.
Grade velveteen
Transplantation and reproduction
If the climate allows you to grow an exotic bush in the open ground as a perennial, then he needs a transplant to change the ground every 3-4 years. Experienced breeders after such a period of time update the shrub, as it loses its decorativeness over the years. A perennial indoor coleus needs a transplant every spring.
Propagating coleus is very simple with cuttings. You can use the rooting method immediately in the soil, or wait for the first roots in the water. Shoots quickly take root and take root in the soil. The optimal period for grafting is from February to May. During cuttings, it is necessary to transship the seedling every 4 weeks into a larger diameter pot.
Important! In the first months, the flower intensively builds up the root system and greenery, so space is necessary for both roots and greenery.
In caring for young rooted shoots, the following conditions must be observed:
- temperature - not lower than 16 ° C;
- frequent watering;
- optimal air humidity;
- adequate lighting.
The soil for rooting needs loose and nutritious. You can use universal substrates for decorative foliage plants, or mix turf peat and humus on your own.
Winter preparations
The end of summer can take place with sharp changes in temperature and its decrease to 10 ° C. Coleus will not tolerate such a decrease and drops in the open ground. At the first signs of autumn coolness, the plant must be dug up and planted in a pot, where it will winter. Annual varieties are cut.
Possible pests and diseases when caring for coles
Among the pests on the bush can be found:
- spider mite;
- lionfish;
- whitefly.
Regular inspection of the foliage of the shrub will prevent the reproduction of pests and protect most of the greenery from damage. It is important to isolate the flower from other indoor plants, if this is the wintering period at home. Timely treatment from pests allows you to protect the flower from death.
Advice! If most of the flower is damaged, you can cut intact shoots and get a young and healthy bush.
Diseases bypass this variety. The only reason for changes in the appearance of the Coleus plant is improper care. Main mistakes in leaving:
- Direct sunlight - leave burns on the leaf plates. Over time, the burnt leaf dries and disappears.
- Lack of light will affect leaf color. It will be pale, light fragments will become translucent.
- Too dry air will appear as brown spots on the leaves.
- With a lack of nutrients, discards leaves, starting from the bottom. Especially often the plant goes hungry in the fall.
- During wintering, the coleus can stretch its shoots, on which leaves are rarely placed. Lack of daylight is the reason for this shoot growth.
Variety blue - annual
Disease prevention is one - proper planting and care of the coleus.
Interesting fact! Often when choosing a home inhabitant of window sills, questions arise about coleus, for example, is it possible to keep this flower at home. This is primarily due to superstition about poverty, which the plant supposedly attracts to the house. In fact, the flower is not able to harm the wallet. Superstitions have arisen due to the comparison of the flower with croton, and the name of the nettle "croton of poverty." But only the poor were called him only because he looked a little like a croton.
The flower has no special requirements for the conditions of detention. Its tropical roots require heat, light and moisture. Coleuses are beautiful decorators of garden beds and plots. The fiery color throughout the winter will remind you of a bright and colorful summer.
