Video: How to Grow Coleus

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The coleus plant doesn't have a spectacular flower, but it is a plant that is known for its foliage. Grow coleus plants as a house plant or an outside garden plant with instructions from a sustainable gardener in this free video series on flower gardening and plant care.

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taz6122 May 25, 2010
Hey Yolanda you don't have to put a cutting in water to root, in fact you're wasting you time rooting in water when you can root in soil. Water roots are much different than soil roots. When you root in water then transplant to soil, the rooting process starts all over. The water roots rot and soil roots form, much thicker and nutrient absorbing roots. Roots formed in water are not able to take up near the nutrients they need and are starving for oxygen.
taz6122 May 25, 2010
Hey Yolanda you don't have to put a cutting in water to root, in fact you're wasting you time rooting in water when you can root in soil. Water roots are much different than soil roots. When you root in water then transplant to soil, the rooting process starts all over. The water roots rot and soil roots form, much thicker and nutrient absorbing roots. Roots formed in water are not able to take up near the nutrients they need and are starving for oxygen.

Video Transcript

Hi, this is Yolanda Vanveen, and in this segment, we're going to learn all about how to grow coleus. Now, coleus doesn't really have a spectacular flower or it's rarely flowers at all, but it's the foliage that's to die for. They have all types of stripes and colors and reds and purples, and they look like a rex begonia. They're just a gorgeous plant, and they're great as a house plant if you live in a cold climate, or as an outside garden plant if you live in a warm climate. But to discover how to treat them and how to grow them, let's find out where they're from native. So it's said that the coleus was first discovered in the Dutch colony of Java, which is now Indonesia by Karl Ludwig Blume. And they...he brought it back to Europe, and it spread in popularity all over the world. And the coleus is actually a part of the mint family, so it's officially an herb and it will multiply and grow just like mint will. But it differs from mint very much so that it cannot go below 60 degrees ever. So almost like a poinsettia -- you don't want to ever put it outside when it gets below 60. So only in the heat of the summer, if you live in a really cold climate, can you put it outside. But if you live in a warm climate where it's over 60 all the time, they'll just thrive. So they like moist shade, but they don't want to sit in a bog of water either. So you want to put them somewhere where they can get a lot of shade, but still some filtered sun because if it's too shady, they won't grow either. And keep them on the wet side, but still dry them out a little bit here and there, but never let them dry out completely. But saying that, if they do dry out and you lose some of the leaves, if you just pull off or break off or cut off the dead leaves, a lot of times, new leaves will develop. And even if you cut them to the ground, a lot of times, they'll still grow as long as the roots are good. They're really easy to take rootings, too. You can start them by seed or you can actually...you can take a stem and put it in water, and it'll grow a new root. And then you turn around and just put that root in soil and it'll grow a new plant. It's that easy to take cuttings from a coleus. So just make sure, never put them in hot, hot sun. And as a house plant, never put them in the sunniest windows, but let...yet, give them a little bit of light if you can, whether it's artificial or just through a window that's not really bright.

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How to Grow Coleus

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