I had 2 surprising results with coleus successfully growing in their original pots.
1) we have rectangular planter boxes in full sun in our driveway, flanking our entry door. I planted abutilon, coleus, pennisetum atropurp.and dahlias, happy all summer. I also set down two 3" plastic pots of coleus on top of the planter-box soil, and never planted them sans pots. Summer rains and hand watering kept the two coleus thriving and they have grown even bigger than the planted coleus near them (diff. variety).Huge and happy. When i explored their pots today i found that they had sent down strong roots from their little pots into the planter box. talk about a no-fuss plant!

2)In another planter- a decorative 2 tiered iron Victorian one, rather than line the 'trough' areas with (expensive)cocoa fiber matting, and fill w/ soil, i just filled one trough with a layer of 3" plastic pots of coleus.Resting on the top trough I left a plastic nursery plant tray filled with 3" pots of coleus and purple wandering jew.I kept all these plants well watered and they grew so well that their foliage obscured their pots.

My point is, you don't have to actually PLANT these coleus to have good success with them! That is a real surprise for me. And if I decide to see if I can succeed with overwintering them w/ grow lights, I'll be starting with healthy pots and not little cuttings!

best,
Mindy

I bought a coleus this spring that I really like. I've been rooting cuttings to pot up for next year, but since the original plant is in a pot, would it work to just bring it in before frost? I don't have grow lights or even super sunny windows. If I try, should I cut it way back?

Last fall I brought in asparagus fern, which did very well indoors all winter. I also brought in a pretty red oxalis, which promptly died--or so I thought. I never got around to doing anything with the pot, just left it on the windowsill, and several months later it resurrected itself. I learned later that oxalis goes through a period of dormancy.

I also have some fancy geraniums which never bloomed as much as they should have--I probably didn't feed them enough or give them quite as much sun as they like--but I'm wondering whether it's worth bringing them in.

As much money as I usually end up spending on annuals, it's hard to see it all go away in the fall!

Yeah, I'm curious as well to know how to save/overwinter some fancy pelargoniums (geraniums) and salvia 'Black and Blue'. Thanks.

George - You can dig the tuber of Salvia 'Black and Blue' and save it just like a dahlia. I have luck doing the saran wrap method.

Deb

Supposedly, I have one salvia that produces tubers, but I have yet to find any actual tubers to store. So I've been overwintering tender salvias in my dining room window. It isn't really ideal, and this year I should have about 4 of them. That may be too many with the other plants that come in.

I've been overwintering a garden variety yellow dahlia that I got at the Ct plant swap for several years now. It's stored extremely reliably. This year I'll be adding a few Bishop's Children. They go in the crawlspace in a pile of vermiculite.

mg - That dahlia could have come from me from me. My first attempt at dividing dahlias yielded more than I knew what to do with. I gave a bunch away and planted the rest in a weird corner of my vegetable garden where I forgot to dig them up at the end of the season till too late! I'm glad it lives on somewhere!

Deb

In the past I've over-wintered Coleus by cutting it back and bringing in the pot and setting it in a sunny window. Come spring I cut it back again and putting it out in the shade for a couple of weeks to get used to the changes in light level before planting in its final spot for the summer. In my experience, the winter foliage color wasn't as nice, but they survived the winter and did fine with spring and summer regrowth.