As if 2020 couldn’t get more challenging, I have now run head on into a conundrum on Coleus or to put it more succinctly, a perplexity on pinching. First a little jaunt into my history with coleus.
I have been part of trials involving coleus for about 25 years starting back when I was in the Texas A&M system as Tarrant County Extension Horticulturist in Fort Worth. At the time we were evaluating coleus for their sun tolerance. In all the year’s, however, we were also keeping a close watchful eye on when they bloomed. We wanted foliage, not blooms, and I suppose that holds true today.
Our grandparents grew coleus that was seed-produced and therefore by its nature, there was pretty foliage, not all that much sun tolerance and its life ended abruptly with flowers followed by seed. Once the breeders got to work and coupled with innovative vegetative propagation, our coleus world exploded. We now have coleus that have become true landscape assets, lasting the entire growing season. I am sitting in Columbus, Ga., in early November and still shooting photos of ColorBlaze Wicked Hot and ColorBlaze
