PlantFiles Pictures: Coleus, Painted Nettle 'Neon Rose' (Solenostemon scutellarioides), 1 by DaleTheGardener

DaleTheGardener wrote:
Joan, always happy to enable the plant crazy.

Some of the photos I have been posting are from RD, I asked and they granted me permission to download them. I have been going thru PFiles and adding photos to the existing entries, maybe 3-5 per day. It takes me awhile because I cross check RD's photo with coleusfinder, other sellers and web pictures. So far the only one that had any doubt involved is Neon Rose.

I am sticking with my decision to call it Neon Rose, because I am sure somewhere, someone decided to drop the Rose, because it didn't fit the tag. I am sure if someone in management wants too, they can change it with a few clicks of their mouse.

I had very bad luck buying coleus from northern growers. Even in mailorder people tend to grow what performs well in their climate. Last year I ordered about 30 from RD and 15 from ColorFarm. Only about 5 (10%) did well here in the steamy south. Most of the coleus we grow are sun coleus, most of the ones from up north are shade types. This year I am only buying from growers that are in Georgia or south. I did notice that RD's plants were much bigger than ColorFarm's. And only one from ColorFarms made it, Big Red he calls it. It is not very vigorous, but, wow it sure is red. I hope this year it will perform better.

We had a very mild winter, with only 10 nights below 45* (8C) a record warm winter, a zone 11 winter! Most of the coleus in my yard were fine, a few suffered. I am going to have a lot of cuttings to pot up later in the spring.

Just wondering what zone your in? Is your part of ND in zone 3 or 4? You must be up in elelvation in that part of the I-94 corridor. I do remember driving thruough there 20-35 years ago. I remember the pot hole lakes with all the ducks hanging out, but, everything else looked pretty dry (compared to rainy MN).

Wouter,

Thanks for your help. I am much harder nosed about being accurate with a plant name that doesn't have an offical registry for names. We have many plant societies that have an 'Official' list that they maintain for new cultivars and the names given them by the hybridizer. Most of them require that you list the parent plants, then others can trace the heritage of the new plants through many generations. That practice helps avoid confusion.

One of the big problems with coleus is that they change or as some say 'sport'. It would be hard to keep up with this plant and its changes. There would be hundreds of entries every year, too much work.