Coleus: A three-foot mint
These delicate plants have colored leaves or beautiful flowers and are members of the mint family. Coleus plants that have ornamental leaves are descended from C. blumei, which has nettle-like, bronze-colored leaves. The colors of their foliage range through yellow, red, crimson, and pink. The flowers that are produced on the varieties grown for their colorful leaves are hardly noticeable. Others have plain green leaves but bear gorgeous spikes of blue flowers in the winter. They are not good as houseplants, but will survive in a greenhouse having a minimum night temperature of 55-60 degrees with a 5-10 degrees rise in the daytime and a fairly humid atmosphere. Coleus fredericii is an annual or biennial plant that has deep purple flowers in late winter or early spring. It grows 3-4 feet tall.
You can see coleus all over our region in some of the more than 200 community gardens, such as our Beechwood Avenue garden (Coleus-Red Ruffles) in Squirrel Hill. For more information on our gardens contact Marianne Cola (who took today's photo) at 412-586-2324. We've just completed an interactive map of our community gardens. Click here to go to it.
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