Coleus plant droopy from bringing indoors

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texasred1 Aurora, CO Nov 11, 2014

I have a pretty large coleus plant that has sat on my front porch facing east quite happy since I bought it this summer. I live in Denver. We have had a few days of freezing weather and I have just brought it into my entryway. There is no direct sunlight once inside. And the plant never stayed inside more than overnight. Winter has officially arrived here. Yesterday the temps went from 67 to 14. I brought the plant to the garage (it was warm) around the 60 mark. It was in the garage for about an hour. When I checked it all the leaves had drooped and it looks brownish gray. I had watered the plant hours earlier fwiw.
What gives? I brought it in the house and put it by my back slider (faces west). Same thing happened to my basil plants last year. Am I just not meant to keep plLants year around in CO?

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dragonfly53 Bedford, VA(Zone 7a) Nov 11, 2014

Texasred, was the coleus exposed to the cold?

If so, it is probably dying and will not recover. Most coleus plants need to be kept in the range of about 45 to 50 degrees. Another thought, if it experienced an extreme drop from 67 to 14 before you brought it in, that plus the fact that the soil was wet which may also have been the reason it is not happy - dry plants tolerate chilling better.

You could try cutting the plant back drastically and keeping it warm in a sunny place in the house and if the roots aren't damaged it may recover. I usually don't try to overwinter these types of plants because they always get either spider mites or aphids and it's the devil to try and get rid of the pest before they move on to my other plants

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