Planting Coleus In A Container

How to plant coleus in a container for the shaded area and pair it with other plants for a different look.

Beginning of July is not too late to plant more flowers or even trees if you would like to have more color in your yard. But with most planting method, generally, the best time to plant is when the day cooler and the sun are not scorching hot to prevent planting shock.

There is a bit different if you are building a container garden because you can do it in a shady place and keep the container there for a few days until it ready for the final spot. Creating a container garden is not difficult at all. You can customize the plant arrangement as you like for the theme. You can choose a mix and match, patriotic color theme, sun-loving container, shade-loving container, tropical, spring, fall, succulents, there are unlimited choices.

Related: How To Grow Turmeric In A Pot

The best thing with the container garden is you can move it around the yard or porch anytime. Or by the end of the season, you can even prepare it to bring the container garden indoor to extend the growing season.

My front porch is on partial shade about five hours sun in the afternoon, so I create the container garden for the shade-loving plant only. This time I plant coleus, known as a mint family but it grows mostly for their colorful foliage. Its bloom resembled a spearmint flower, but the leaves are more outstanding especially for the shade.

Container and soil
If you use the same pot as the previous season, sterilize it first by washing it with soap, scrub it and rinse it thoroughly with water. You can spray it with bleach diluted with water.

Fill up the container with potting soil about half full, put the coleus on top of the potting soil, make sure the bottom of the plant one inch below the top of the container, then fill it up with more soil.

Coleus love moist and well-draining area, water the plant when the soil is dry on the top and keep it moist. Fertilize it with an all-purpose fertilizer. I put some cow manure on potting soil, and that is usually enough for this plant.

Like what I mentioned above, coleus is best for the shade. The color is brighter if it only gets a few hours of sun. When it grows in full sun, coleus got sun scorch easily, and the color is washed out.

Companion plant
Coleus has beautiful color foliage from maroon, red, pink, chartreuse, brown, yellow and also variegated one mixed between several colors on one plant. This plant is excellent for companion planting with other plants. The choice is endless.

• For the shade-loving plant, choose hosta, fuchsia, fern, begonia, impatiens, sweet potato vine, coral bells.
• For mix and match color, combine coleus with million bells, petunia, bacopa, lobelia, marigold, daisy, basically any flowering plants is an excellent choice.
• For the dramatic looks, try planting coleus in the middle of the container and pair it with the trailing plants like creeping jenny, creeping charlie, bacopa, lobelia, ivy.
• For a unique look, plant coleus with different texture plants like ornamental grass or daylily.
• You can also plant coleus with the similar color plants only for a monochrome look.

Here I plant coleus with mini hosta for companion planting. This container garden is just an early stage. The container will look full within two weeks. I picked up four different coleus plants. All have different leave shape and colors. That is the unique thing about coleus, and I don’t have to worry if it did not bloom because I only plant it for the foliage.

How is your garden doing? What do you like the most when you are creating a container garden? My favorite one is when I help my daughter to build her miniature garden, it is a rewarding thing to spend time together playing with nature.

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