Last weekend I took my wonderful husband, Lee, and garden-elf daughter to the nursery. I kept going on and on about the coleus. The colors! The textures! They look at me and simply smile. I think to myself, "Thank god they indulge me....this has the potential to be incredibly embarrassing!" They lovingly help me carry everything to the car, and then watch me "dig holes," as Lee says, and promptly put them into the ground. I love them for that.
Coleus are part of my upbringing. Part of my "fabric" when I really needed something predictable and reliable every year. When I was young, my mother used to plant coleus in a huge antique rusty kettle. They were usually maroon and dark purple. These days they're downright exotic! Wow! You almost wouldn't think they were coleus at all. The super frilly varieties are not in yet, but I look forward adding some of those in with the others soon.
THE COLEUS BONUS: Colorful, textured coleus with big personalities offer a great alternative to those of us who don't have sunny spots to grow brightly colored flowers. And for envious 8 hours of sun-per-day gardeners there is now a "sun coleus."
Above are the ones I bought that day with my husband and daughter. The names are intriguing...and I think that's probably half the sell.... Top center is "Red Dragon," bottom center is "Henna," and bottom right is "The Flame." I absolutely had to have a coleus called "The Flame!"
One of the best combos I saw last year was a reddish variety used with the new Mahonia called "Soft Caress" in a downtown Charleston garden.
ReplyDeleteI looked it up. I bet it adds great texture too. I'll look for it at Hyams on my next trip.
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