Along with much of the country we have been experiencing extremely low temperatures here in Michigan for the last several days. As long as the power stays on and the greenhouse stays warm I am happy, though. (I stay even happier if I don't think about the fuel bills)
Fortunately I have the greenhouse work to get me into the daylight instead of turning into a hermit. Spending the day in a colorful tropical environment is just what I need at this time of year. There is so much to do to have coleus plants ready to ship in late March that the winter actually races by!
Every summer we grow a big organic vegetable garden so when I don't have my Rosy Dawn Gardens hat on I like to put together the seed orders and plan when to start them under lights in the house. Yep - even though we have a greenhouse business the flourescent lights still come out every spring and we have to find room on countertops and windowsills just like everyone else. The greenhouse is always bursting with coleus by March and we just don't have the room to start seeds in there.
What do you do to pass the cold winter months?
Having trouble with my Chocolate Mint Coleus. It was given as a gift this spring and really blossomed beautifully in a pot. When I tried to put one of the cuttings into the ground even though it was shaded most of the time, when the summer sun hit it, it wilted and I feared it would die, so I repotted it and kept it in the shade under the porch. Both the parent and the cutting did well during the summer. When winter hit, I brought them indoors and watched as the fully blossomed parent lost all its leaves and what remains is a skeleton with those purple shoots coming from the top. The baby cutting is still small but has a few leaves. Oh, I repotted the parent before bringing it indoors to a larger pot, it seemed to be outgrowing the one it was in.
ReplyDeleteIn addition the person who gave me the gift bought one for himself. His leaves never grew as large as mine and it kind of spread out like a wandering jew instead of the way my grew like a small bush. Now during the winter he still had leaves but the ants found their way into his apartment and to my horror nested in the pot and created an infestation in the apartment that is impossible to get rid of. I put the plant out on the patio. It was losing leaves daily and felt like it was dead even though it was still green and had few leaves. The branches were falling off by touch. The ants were beginning to get in all the other potted plants in his apartment as well. We both loved our Chocolate Mint Coleus so much...where did we go wrong? He is upset that I put the plant outdoors and left it. I figured it was going to die anyway, and we don't use chemical pesticides in the home and I wanted to be rid of the ants.
Unfortunately "Chocolate Mint' is a seed-grown variety. Coleus grown from seed tend to bloom out and either die or get rangey by the end of the season. Sometimes, if you can root a cutting that doesn't have a bud or bloom forming then you can get a decent new plant, at least until it wants to bloom.
ReplyDeleteTry not to feel bad about your coleus on the patio. Seed grown coleus are usually considered an annual, and you got one good season out of it!