Hi Verdun, thanks for the advice. Yes, it looks bigger than it is in the photo. It's only 6 inches in height and the pot is 5.5 inches in diameter and 6 inches. I'm still not sure whether to leave it on the window sill or put it outside
If it grows, I'll take cuttings but at the moment I need to try and keep it alive ! It's already flowered but I pinched them off as soon as I knew from here to take them off.
We often recommend using tomato feed to water our bedding plants etc in the summer, that is because the same nutrients that encourage the formation of fruit will encourage flowering. However, with Coleus you don't want flowers, you want foliage, so use a more general fertiliser - I would use a weak solution of seaweed fertiliser.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Update - my tiny coleus plant is now pretty big!! Thanks for all the advice. In the end I put on a sunny window sill and it has grown rapidly in just a few weeks! I just took it outside a couple of days ago (as it seemed to have some flies coming up from the compost):
It's already filled up it's pots and roots hanging out. Should I repot again? Also wondering whether to still keep it indoors but I've run out of window-sill space and it is getting big. With outside though, the weather is getting pretty cold, and also there seems to be rain every other day. Not sure what's best.
Could someone advise on how to take a cutting from this? Is it similar to a geranium? We just had a flash torrential downpour and one stem of this coleus, which was only temporarily outside, has now snapped quite low down.
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Hi Verdun, thanks for the advice. Yes, it looks bigger than it is in the photo. It's only 6 inches in height and the pot is 5.5 inches in diameter and 6 inches. I'm still not sure whether to leave it on the window sill or put it outside
If it grows, I'll take cuttings but at the moment I need to try and keep it alive ! It's already flowered but I pinched them off as soon as I knew from here to take them off.
We often recommend using tomato feed to water our bedding plants etc in the summer, that is because the same nutrients that encourage the formation of fruit will encourage flowering. However, with Coleus you don't want flowers, you want foliage, so use a more general fertiliser - I would use a weak solution of seaweed fertiliser.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Ok thranks Dovefromabove will do. I have Miracle Gro - will that do?
Update - my tiny coleus plant is now pretty big!! Thanks for all the advice. In the end I put on a sunny window sill and it has grown rapidly in just a few weeks! I just took it outside a couple of days ago (as it seemed to have some flies coming up from the compost):
It's already filled up it's pots and roots hanging out. Should I repot again? Also wondering whether to still keep it indoors but I've run out of window-sill space and it is getting big. With outside though, the weather is getting pretty cold, and also there seems to be rain every other day. Not sure what's best.
Keep it indoors now. You could take cuttings from those longer shoots now so you have more plants in the spring.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thanks Dovefromabove. Shall I repot it? Will this one survive til next yeare do you think? The roots are filling this pot.
Could someone advise on how to take a cutting from this? Is it similar to a geranium? We just had a flash torrential downpour and one stem of this coleus, which was only temporarily outside, has now snapped quite low down.
Yes, taking cuttings is the same way as you do with pelargoniums (which used to be called tender geraniums.)
Last edited: 21 September 2016 19:06:18
Yes woops that what I meant, pelagorniums lol. I will attempt a cutting of this wonderful purple-leaved plant and hope to still have it next year.