The Beauty of Coleus

I had always been fascinated by Coleus. Over the years I must have tried to raise them at least half a dozen times. But could never succeed. Perhaps I did not put in the effort to raise them or perhaps my effort was simply halfhearted. But now, I was determined to succeed. I bought a small sapling in the second week of June. This time I had done my homework well and thanks to Google I knew I could not fail.

I get my plants from the Military Nursery shop in the Army campus in Secunderabad. They tend to the saplings well and are not overly pricey. They also sell compost, soil and fertilizers. That is where I got my coleus sapling from.

All that I had to do was to fill one third of the pot with vermi compost, one third of it with normal soil and one third of it with coco peat (I am creating a post on where to get them in Hyderabad). I also added one spoon of all purpose fertilizer mix to it and planted my coleus. And lo! The plant is growing and flourishing beautifully.

Coleus

Within a matter of just three weeks, many new shoots have shot up. I even see the leaves are getting larger!

More Coleus Plants:

Flushed by the success of this one, I went to the nursery last week and got two more varieties of coleus. And a third I got from the roadside. It looked abandoned and had lost all hope of survival - I chose to adopt it!  In the picture below, I have indicated this plant with an arrow. You can see three plants there. All three have survived and are showing signs of vigor.

Three Different Coleus Varieties

Coleus plants are great to grow in apartments. It would be good to place them in places where the sunlight is not harsh. I have placed these plants in a location where the gentle rays of the sun fall on them till 11 am. After that they are in shade. I used to water them daily. But I have been advised not to over do that. Water them only when the soil gets dry.

My Coleus plants have not started flowering yet. But when it does, I have been advised to nip the flowering tips off to give the plants a bushier growth.

I have now bought seeds for more varieties of Coleus from http://seedkart.com. I got about 50 seeds. Will be sowing them tomorrow. It would be interesting to see if I succeed in propagating them this way too!