Hi, I'm in a Coleus group and they've said again and again just to put cuttings in water in a sunny window. That's what I'm doing. It's too early for roots for me but we'll see. I'm also trying leaves. My first cutting was the top of a large stemmed plant, so I'm not sure if it's too thick (I read that the thinner the stem, the easier the rooting). It's a good 1/4" thick square stem.

As for the blooms, yes I think they're pretty too. I saw some fully formed blooms at a gas station this year. I've been pinching all my flower stalks off as soon as they appear. So far all my plants have kept going and are nicely bushy now. If you let them bloom the Coleus will fade & die afterwards, being an annual.

Ok, I've been "speaking too soon" all week and this is no exception: I came home today to find that my first Coleus cutting (the terminal part of the 1st plant) has tiny roots forming!!! Now I have to be hopeful for the leaf cuttings.

...this summer I have made many baby Coleus plants from cuttings and the best method is the one to place cuttings in water and plant it in soil after the roots appear ....now I will try to do the same during winter to get new plants for next spring...these were unusual colors found in local nursery and I want them year after year....Sue

I've been rooting my coleus as "winter security" too. I just stick them in water withing a week or 2, they have roots and are ready to be planted. All you need is a 6-8" piece.

wanda

Just take stems 3 inches long or so, remove leaves from the lower half, stick in moist potting soil, cover with a plastic bag and stand back. No rooting hormone is ever necessary. They root well in water also, but will be set back a bit when finally planted in soil (no big deal though).

How do I know when to cut? I don't want to ruin the looks of the main plant prematurely. How much cold can a coleus take?
Also, is their any point in bringing the main plant indoors to overwinter or is it just destined to die, being an annual... Or is coleus just "annual" in the sense that it isnt hardy in most of the zones where people want to grow it...like some "annuals" are... in which case it might live on?
Thanks!

hoe hoe, they can't take a zone 6 winter, that's for sure. They will die below 32 degrees. So do something before frost. :)

Coleus make ok house plants, so bring it in if it is something you like and want to keep. Then you can make cuttings later when it gets a little lanky.

Coleus is a plant that like warm soil temperatures so even when temperatures are above freezing they can go into shock if the temperature drop is sudden.

Right about now I would just cut small pieces of the stem and root them in water or well draining soil.

You can dig the entire plant and keep indoor, but there is really no reason to. Ideally you just want small cuttings making it through winter so you can propagate them next spring again. You do not want a big coleus plant indoor for the winter (or maybe you do ??!!).

I find that coleus grown in too much shade, or indoor, tend to become leggy. I prefer to take cuttings (by pinching off the top 2-3" of a stem or of the top of the plant) and rooting the cutting. Otherwise you have some not so nice looking straggly plants to contend with....

Thank you Mehitabel and KD! Sounds like taking cuttings is probably the way to go... and considering night time temperatures are forcasted to drop about 10 degrees this coming week... I will definitely get my snips out sometime this weekend and take a few cuttings... even if I do decide to save the whole plant before it is too late (as if I am at a shortage for houseplants!), it seems likely that by cutting, I would only encourage it to take a bushier form..

My Coleus is all in containers on my covered back porch, and even with this past week of frosty temps, they look great. I have already taken cuttings from almost all of them, and rooted them (very easily) in water.

See my page and go to my Coleus gallery: http://www.pbase.com/ashes26

Here is a link that might be useful: My Plants

I live in Central California and we get enough freezing nights to kill Coleus growng in pots or in the ground. I have been successfully growing, propagating and enjoying Coleus for over 30 years. I am a retired Middle School Science teacher and used Coleus to raise funds and entertain my students until I retired. Now I just entertain myself and friends with them. I am not an expert, but I find it hard to believe that anyone has difficulty starting Coleus from cuttings. My newest method is making a propagation chamber out of four one quart milk cartons and starting four Coleus plants in Styrofoam coffee cups. I use a mix of Perlite, Vermiculite and potting soil. If you want pictures or other information feel free to Email me direct.

I recently bought 5 different varieties of colius. I use to plant many of them while working in a nursery. Root hormone is fine, but it is easier just to take cuttings and put them in a container of water. You just need patience but they will start to root in a week. Even if you take cuttings or pinch of leaves and they wilt, they do revive in water.

Those I've planted in the ground are under attack of bugs, what is best used to rid them of pests????

P.S.

The week of "water rooting" produces roots maybe an 1/8th of inch. Let them grow a couple of weeks before potting.

Hi All, i find it best to just snap of a branch and put it in water, on a warm day, the cuttings can suck up to an inch of water and you see the excess dripped around the glass (it took me a while to work out where all the little pools of water were coming from). Anyhow, you must always remove the blooms to keep them bushy and the most colourful and a good cut back every once and a while does them good (by about half)
Hope that helps a little,
Cheers Phil.

I also vote for water rooting. I'm always rooting cuttings, trying different color combinations together... I have 7 pots of cuttings from the summer coleus that I had outside and one that I liberated from a plant outside my diner. It's been getting cold and it doesn't look like they're going to take cuttings before they perish so I saved a piece. :)

Juust remember: Colius love lots of sun, the more sun, the more deep color in the leaves. :)

Hi Everyone!
this is a first posting for me.I have 20 different kinds of coleus plants that i have started from cuttings. All of them came from the garden and were started in glasses of water. They're beautiful!

But they are shrubs, not true annuals. Some seem to overwinter better than others, which makes them all the more interesting, being unpredictable! I'm only beginning with them, and we have one which is overwintering and has stayed very full, with lots of new shoots now coming from the soil under the plant.

Coleus is technically a perennial, usually grown as a tender annual. I have 5 or 6 as bonsai, growing under lights indoors that are several years old. They do lignify (get somewhat woody) as they get older, but lack "persistent woody stems" so cannot be classified as a shrub. They fall in the catagory of perennial herb.

I don't know if it's been mentioned above, but those of you rooting in water will have faster strikes and better survival if you change the rooting water daily or at least often. The growing bacteria goes out with the old water and a fresh supply of oxygen comes in with the new. Using room temp water is best.

Al