This is the wrong picture; this is the first time I have done this; stay tuned - I might just eventually get this right.
This message was edited Wednesday, Sep 18th 11:18 PM
duckfoot coleus?
that is one you gave me Roz, a nice one!!
Glad it is doing well.
The picture is so close up that it's hard to tell, but I'd guess a young Kiwi Fern, or one that hasn't gotten much sun. Gradually move it into full sun, and the entire leaf will turn that burgundy color, but darker, with a thin yellow/green edge, and the growth will be denser, too.
I do not think it is a kiwi fern for that is one I actually have figured out the name of! what is odd about this one is the center of the leaf has a flat part of green and then all around curves up. It also does not have the thin leaves of kiwi fern. It is a fatter heart shape. But then what do I know........LOL.
That can happen with Kiwi Fern. Some of mine are like that. It's just a slight variation that you'll see, usually in mature plants or plants that are growing and developing more slowly than hothouse Kiwi Ferns (that are fed chemicals to make them grow faster); then they are kind of leggy, and their leaves are very thin and mostly frills.
Kiwi Fern's leaves will never be fat and heartshaped like ... Wizard Red Velvet or Wizard Golden, but they are often wider than you'd expect from gallery pictures (also taken in growers' greenhouses). The sun can slow down growth by causing new cells to be shorter than cells that get less light. So the leaves are broader and grow more densely, the stem is sturdier, and there is less distance between leaves on the stem.
Small, young starts of Kiwi Fern are almost always close to completely green. Of course, part of the reason for that is that they are started in the shade. If you gradually accustom them to more sun and eventually put them in full sun, the color will fill in a lot (not always completely).
The edge frills of Kiwi Fern turn upward, especially the younger leaves and especially near the petioles ... if not always, then usually.
Every coleus has a wide range of appearances, depending on age, light exposure, fertilization and maybe other things I don't know about. Coleus varieties and invididual coleuses can be complex in their reactions, needs, conditions for rooting, etc. You learn them with time and attention, just like any other being, like a pet or a person.
I just went and got couple of Kiwi Ferns, one growing in full sun and a young one growing in the shade. They are from different stock from different nurseries. Some of the leaves on the one in full sun are a good bit wider than those in the pic, and many have more green in the middle than I expected. And the edges are green – I had been thinking they’d be yellow in the sun.
Some leaves on the young, shaded one are completely green except for a speck near the center or tip of the leaf or a little bit of color along the central vein.
The two things about the one in the picture that are unlike mine are the consistently clear, unsplotched green patch in the middle of the leaf and the colored veining. The burgundy on mine is solid. There may be more or fewer colored areas, but what is colored is colored in solid splotches ... it breaks up into speckles along the outside, but not into veins, though the central vein is often colored (again, unlike the pic). These could be individual differences because they come from stock that has been developing separately for a long time, or I may be completely wrong, and it’s a plant I don’t know.
Also, there’s a lot of yellow in the leaves at the top of the stem in the center and on the leaf in the top right corner. That could just show that they have gotten dry more often than they like or they could be a little chlorotic (need a little iron) or they need a shot of nitrogen. Coleuses are so tolerant of differences in soils that it is probably not an iron deficiency. Even where I am, it’s hard to water coleus often enough to prevent them from ever drying out and flopping over, and Roz is two or three hundred miles south of me. Several of mine have flecks of yellow on the tips of their frills, but that’s different.
When I want to give a boost of nitrogen to green up a plant, I use Dried Blood, available in any garden shop in the form of a dry, odorless, black powder. You just work a few spoonfuls into the top inch or two of soil within the dripline of the plant and water it. If it’s a large plant, make it a couple of handfuls. You can usually see a difference pretty quickly – in a few days or sooner.
So, I still think it’s Kiwi Fern, but I wouldn’t bet the farm on it.
[I’ll apologize once and for all for writing long posts. It comes from much of my life having been spent in academics then editing. Words, words, words.]
SO RRIK, what animal do they get dried blood from? From which country? Ever since I heard that you could get mad cow from bone meal, it took the fun out of it for me!! Gee, I wonder if that is what is wrong with me lately...............
So Roz, it is your coleus, what do you think? DO you have a kiwi fern to compare? The one you sent me is definitely not a kiwi fern if I know what a kiwi fern is........LOL and I am not even sure of that..............!
This message was edited Friday, Sep 20th 11:08 AM
Gee, Kell, I am just not an expert on coleus; I do know that my picture probably did not give a very good impression of this coleus cause I did a close up and the very small leaves could not be compared. It does not have green leaves when I root some, and my plant gets lots and lots of water (auto sprinkler) and plenty of sunshine. It is a small mounding plant. So, I will have to defer to the experts.
Kell, I believe horticultural dried blood comes exclusively from mad cows. It's been the only market they've been able to find for mad cow byproducts.
If you're skittish about using dried blood, small amounts of lawn fertilizer will also have the quick regreening effect. The balance should show a high first number (I've seen 50-0-0!). Avoid the lawn fertilizers that include weedkillers or insecticides.
About whether it is a KF or not, many or most of the versions that are circulating in this part of the country have the green markings I described (and Roz isn't all that far from me). Coleus varieties are very mutable and good growers have to be careful to avoid rooting parts of plants that have unfavorable characteristics. But most growers don't consider that. They have underlings chop up the plants and start the cuttings with no thought to preserving conformation. They reason that, if the parent plant was a kiwi fern, then the cuttings must be as well. So the quality of the varieties available can vary widely from the ideal.