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Are you thinking of growing coleus in your garden or taking it as a houseplant? Maybe you are wondering if this is evergreen and would go through seasons or an annual you will need to replant every year. How long, in essence, do coleus plants live?
Not different from other indoor houseplants, the coleus has recently become so popular in the last several years. But will it live longer than a spider plant or outlive an air plant? These are somewhat subjective questions and will largely be based upon the care you can provide to each plant.
How much they live would always depend on where you keep it and where you live. Wherever you keep them outdoors depends on where you live. They would survive indoors in the right surroundings for a number of years. Coleus is a perennial given the right setting.
The colorful foliage, the coleus, is a tropical plant. Most gardeners primarily grow it for that foliage. Coleus foliage comes in just about every color possible: pale yellow, lime green, fuchsia, purple, and dark green. Their coloring will depend a lot on the cultivar of the plant. There will also be black foliage on occasion. Late summer months will introduce flowers on your coleus plant, too.
Sometimes called the Painted Nettle, even Poor Man’s Croton, the coleus is closely allied with the mints.
The average lifespan of this plant is one year. But they surely can live longer indoors if taken good care of. It’s common to have in-house plants live between the age of 3-4 years if they are properly taken care of, proper watering, sunlight, right soil relevant together, and proper plant food to keep it green and healthy. Indoor coleus plants may live a little bit longer than other houseplants.
Other people also keep coleus as perennial flowers indoors, others like to bring them inside during winter from the garden outdoors. Yet, you do have to provide it with certain conditions for it to thrive indoors. While it does require bright sunlight, it should not be directly applied.
Your plant’s soil should be kept a little moist at all times while it is active. During winter, this is less of a priority. During the course of the year, you also want to feed your annuals a light dose of high nitrogen fertilizer every two weeks.
You usually can just use a general-purpose potting mix for your coleus. It does need to be a well-draining variety, however. Though this plant does best in mostly indirect, yet bright sunlight, there are some varieties that can take direct sun for a short period of the day. You want to re-pot it every year or two.
Give the plant some fluorescent plant “grow lights” depending upon how little light you get through the window where you put your coleus. This will be necessary for a certain period of the day. Since coleus likes temperatures around 70 or 80 degrees Fahrenheit, it simply isn’t worth trying to cut corners on your furnace bill in attempting to maintain this temperature. You can also add to the room a humidifier to help along these lines.
Being that this is a cool sensitive species of coleus, it should not be kept near any draughts that may be in your home. You will most likely keep your coleus at a window, but make sure the window is well-insulated.
One thing to remember when having coleus indoors is how toxic they are to animals. Finally, you will want to make sure this plant is out of reach and cannot be chewed on by any of your pets.
You can determine how much of the growing season coleus can spend in the yard by initially knowing your USDA hardiness zone. If you’re in USDA zone 10 or 11, then your area should be mild enough to overwinter coleus in your garden.
If you are in USDA zone 9 or would like your outdoor coleus to survive the winter, you will need to take them indoors. Move them into an indoor container and place them in an appropriate location until spring. When you take your plant inside for winter, this is called overwintering. Overwintering with coleus requires getting it indoors early on. If you do not live in USDA zone 9, 10, or 11, then there are two options for your coleus plant. You can also choose to keep it as a permanent house plant or you can have it as an annual flower in your outdoor garden.
While coleus is a shade-friendly species, they should not be in deep shade. This kind of plant does require a certain amount of sunlight for it to develop its variety of colors. Generally speaking, partial shade will be what works best with this type of plant. Coleus, under these kinds of conditions, will most likely have some eye-catching colors.
One symptom could be that the foliage will have a bleached look to it. Needless to say, the trick with coleus is finding just the right amount of shade versus sun.
Yes, you can grow coleus from seed. Most people who plant coleus do use nursery transplants, but this does tend to be a bit costly to achieve lots of coleuses using this method. Whatever way you choose, you should wait until the last frost is over and done with before you plant. You may well come out with burnt or dead plants if you plant too early. Coleus is very sensitive to cold; frozen, it will probably die, and you cannot revive such a plant. Whatever method applied to plant your coleus, be really careful with its regular watering.
The mature size of coleus depends on the variety. You may find your coleus grows as tall as two or three feet. The height range can be anywhere from six inches up to three and a half feet. You will usually have to wait between six months and a year in order to grow an average sized attractive plant.
While coleuses are beautiful plants, sometimes they do present problems. One is the fact that they can attract pests indoors if you have them inside. A few examples of common pests attracted to coleus include the following:
Mealybugs are sometimes not easily noticed, and that is how you may end up getting an infestation without your knowledge of there being some kind of problem. One of many reasons to regularly inspect your plant is bugs. These bugs are light-colored and look a little like caterpillars. They will damage your coleus, especially the leaves. You need to manually remove the mealybugs the moment you detect them. If you happen to notice early enough, you might get away with this alone to address the issue. This is the case with many forms of infestation. Coleus may droop if the plant does not get a good amount of sunlight. Conversely, too much sun can potentially cause the pot to fade out; sometimes the leaves may even show burn marks.
There are numerous types of coleus; you need to choose the category or species which fits according to your needs and preferences. You can notice variations in the type by studying its appearance. Variations in coleus species occur in veins, margins, blotches, splashes, specks, and color intensity. The various kinds of coleus do have variations in how much sun they can take. In general, it’s safe to say that the darker-leaved coleus will probably handle full sun better than others, whereas a lighter-colored one would need more care with too much exposure to the sun. Learn the particular type of coleus you are growing or purchasing, so you may provide appropriate care for it. The coleus also varies in leaf texture and size. You can get small or big leaves, while shapes and textures pop in: finger-shaped, lobed, elongated, twisted, amongst others. If you think your coleus leaves look a little like webbed feet, you have the “duck’s foot” leaf variety.
Like with any other plant, you want to provide the right amount of care for your coleus plant-setting it up like it needs. Know the variety of coleus you have when deciding how to take care of it to maximize its life. Give your plant the proper care in terms of watering, like mentioned earlier with the information we provided. Watch the plant and water when the soil looks dry. Sometimes it may look like it is dead, when in fact it could not be. In such a case, if it looks like your coleus is dead, water it thoroughly. You may be surprised that with those actions, it just isn’t dead but will regain that healthy look.
As we’ve learned here, a coleus plant is a tropical perennial that, on average, bears the same life cycle as any other perennial plants. Of course, whether it will act as a perennial mostly depends on your region and whether you keep it indoors or outdoors. Coleus will die relatively quickly if they’re exposed to freezing temperatures and frost. Generally speaking, the outdoor plants can be expected to live about a year give or take, while the indoor plants will be your companion for myriad years, running all the way up to 3-5 years if properly taken care of.
