My Favorite plant is the coleus

[HelpinUtah]

Have any of you collected these plants.  I have an old friend who gave me a coleous a couple years ago and since then I am in total love with them.  They almost look like flowers!  In my office, I have 2 white and green ones, 1 peach colored one, 1 red one and 1 that is multi - redand white in the leaves.  And, I have a cut from someone who has a pinkish purple one with white around the edges of the pinkish purple and green!  They grow a purple colored flower on the tip of them.  Just awesome!

Check them out!

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&ei=RJPjSdTCI4KktgfmjtGmDg&resnum=0&q=coleus&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=RpPjSfXxLcLJtge8nsy2DA&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title

[PrettyKitty1]

Well...now we know, HU, don't take the plants home!!!!!

[HelpinUtah]

All of mine were from seeds.  I'll have to take some pictures and post them.  I think they are just beautiful!  One was from a wizard mix. I keep mine cut back so that I do not have to keep repotting them at work.  A couple have gotten pretty big!  

Thanks for the info on the cats!  :)

[MJIthewriter]

I did read somewhere they are poisonous to cats, but our cats seem to avoid them.  I'm guessing the scent/taste isn't very attractive to cats.

[MJIthewriter]

Wow. I don't know how I missed this topic.  Coleus are one of my favorite plants.  I read there are two kinds: Sun coleus and shade/seed coleus.  The sun ones tolerate more sunlight and don't die if they bloom.  But they are sterile and won't produce viable seeds.  Seed coleus are fairly cheap and easy to grow.  Thing is if you have a garden that gets direct sunlight, you may have a major mid day "wilt fest".  (We did with our seed coleus), but with water and late afternoon shade recover.

Grandma and I have some pink ones we've grown since 1995 or so.  They were given to me by some friends of my mom's at the time.  I pinch off the tops and grow them out to look sort of like bonsai trees. (though lately all have been kind of neglected in favor of my African violets)

HelpinUtah, you may want to try the Burpee seed coleus mix.  I planted a bunch a couple years ago and it was very fun.  The seeds are tiny and the tiny sprouts lack color until they start to get bigger.  It makes it all the more fun to grow.  I had quite an assortment.  At least one of them we still have and it looks just as pretty indoors as outdoors.

[Bon-Bon]

......sorry.....I meant "SweetPeas".  :  )

[Bon-Bon]

I have a huge cross-tie bed.  I love coleus too.  So one year, I planted nothing but coleus of every color I could find in it.  It was magnificant!  Everyone that saw complemented on it.  I thought about doing it this year too.  But I kinda got caught up on Snapdragons this time.

[HelpinUtah]

I'm not sure they are poisonous, but these plants are a member of the mint family and most cats hate the smell of mint and most likely wouldn't bother them.  I'll bet we could google that question and find out.  

It's really hard for me to keep plants at home.  Our littlest kitten (almost a year old and will be a year in May) climbs into the one big plant I have at home on the floor and I'm always yelling at her to get out of it.  UGH!    

[PrettyKitty1]

As you can tell, I also have CATS!! lol Are these plants poisonous to them? Do you know?

Oh yes, forrest lol....beautiful forrest!!

[HelpinUtah]

PrettyKitty:
I can't keep these plants at home because of my 5 cats!  LOL!!! So, they are sitting on my window sill in my office at work.  Everyone calls it my "forrest!"  LOL!!!!

[PrettyKitty1]

Beautiful! Just Perfect! Yes, I like this plant too. It's perfect! I love it.  I have never collected plants because of lack of time. If you have a live 'something' might as well care for it, right? I just don't have time for that, or space. But I will, one day, collect plants.

Thanks HU, for sharing this. The pictures are so refreshing.....