Get A Jump On Your Spring Landscape By Propagating Coleus Now

It's no wonder gardeners want to propagate coleus. This gorgeous plant is known for its colorful foliage, and you'll find stunning and unusual dark colors of coleus. Depending on where it's grown, coleus can be an annual or perennial and works as an outdoor garden plant or indoor houseplant. The Coleus genus is comprised 320 species with a stunning range of vivid color varieties and combinations — purple, lavender, red, burgundy, variegated, white, brown, copper, gold, yellow, green, orange, and pink. It's not uncommon to see a combination of these on coleus foliage. The variety makes coleus an excellent choice as an accent plant, as well as in garden beds, containers, and hanging baskets.

Many species of coleus are highly cold-sensitive and it has a reputation as one of the first plants to die off in a winter freeze. That's one reason coleus propagation is popular. Rather than trying to deal with a coleus doomed to freeze to death, some gardeners take cuttings so they'll have plenty of new plants in the spring. But it's also possible to bring your coleus plants indoors for the winter before the first frost, where you can still take cuttings and grow new plants for spring — but you get to keep your existing plants, too. Be sure to give indoor coleus plants ample sunlight.

You can take coleus cuttings at any time of year. Gathering them before the first frost enables you to nurture them as they grow all winter and prepare them to be transplanted to your spring garden. To take stem cuttings, cut from the top of the plant, taking a 4 to 6 inch section. Thin stems will root faster than thick ones, which are also more likely to rot. Strip leaves off the bottom portion of the cutting and immerse in water up to the area from which the leaves were removed. Be sure to change the water a couple times a week while the cutting is rooting. You should see roots growing within two to three weeks. 

You may wonder if you should use rooting hormone. Coleus has been shown to gain only a minor benefit from rooting hormone and may not need it. You can, however, give it a low-dose rooting hormone intended for softwood cuttings. Some gardeners skip rooting in water and place softwood cuttings like coleus directly into potting mix or a 1:1 mix of vermiculite and perlite. Still another option is to do both; start the cutting in water, but transfer it to a pot with growing medium when the roots are about an inch long. Before planting them outside, get the full scoop on how to grow and care for coleus plants.

Once cuttings are potted, you'll want to water regularly to maintain moist, but not saturated, potting mix. The plants also benefit from humidity, which you can supply using a humidifier, placing pots on dishes of pebbles with water, or enshrouding plants with plastic bags. Of course, you could also use this humidity-loving plant to give your bathroom a pop of color. 

Place the cuttings in a bright area, but shield them from direct sunlight. A temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit will nurture your coleus cuttings as they await the move to their spot in your spring landscape; indoor temperatures below 50 degrees Fahrenheit require consideration of a heat mat. No fertilizer is needed as the cuttings settle in to their planter, but once established, plants can get an application of soluble houseplant fertilizer, with monthly applications thereafter. As the root system grows, you can move the plants into larger pots.

Be aware that propagating plants could cause you a legal headache when they are patented, as many newer varieties of coleus are. Watch for plant tags stating that the coleus plant is patented and can't legally be propagated. You should see the designation "PP" on the tag if this applies to the species you want to propagate.