Rainbow Mix Coleus | Coleus blumei
Striking foliage for beds and containers.
Among foliage enthusiasts, Coleus, in particular, is a favourite. Since the Victorian era, landscape designers have prized Coleus for its creative potential in the garden, sometimes using the high-contrast leaves to create ornate “carpet bedding” displays. The Victorians loved these designs made from flowers, low-growing foliage plants, and topiary–and used them to create crowd-pleasing horticultural spectacles. Although carpet bedding eventually fell out of fashion, Coleus retained its star power due to its beauty, versatility, and charm. Grow its stunning foliage to brighten shady corners and add contrast to flower beds.
This mix is a true rainbow of colours, including: pinks, burgundy, yellow, bronze, purple, white, lime and dark greens. An incredibly versatile plant that tolerates a range of sun/shade and soil conditions, Coleus grows just as happily in the ground or in containers, and can even be brought indoors for a lovely houseplant. Can be pinched back to encourage a shorter, bushier habit.
Start indoors 6-8 weeks before last frost, sowing the seeds on the surface of the soil as light aids in germination. Mist or bottom water until germination, and provide warmth. Harden off and transplant outdoors after the danger of frost has passed. After transplant, the growing plants can be pinched back to encourage a shorter, bushier habit. Enjoy the colourful foliage outdoors or in bouquets. Plants can be grown as annuals or overwintered indoors.
Days to Germination 10-14
Days to Maturity 75
Planting Depth Barely Cover
Spacing in Row 12"
Spacing Between Rows 18"
Height at Maturity 36"
Width at Maturity 18"
Sun Preference Part Sun to Full Shade
Printmaker Jennifer Zee uses the infinite nature of tessellation to celebrate the continuous growth of plants like Coleus. This design is printed from six block and five inks, using a repeating pattern evocative of formal "carpet" gardens.
About Hudson Valley Seed Company
They are a values-driven seed company that practices and celebrates responsible seed production and stewardship. Hudson Valley are best known for their beautiful artist-design seed packs (Art Packs) that appeal to gardeners, gift buyers, and lovers of art and nature.
These Art Packs, most fundamentally, tell stories. Hudson Valley challenges artists to convey in a manner that is fully their own, the history and meaning of the seed variety contained in each pack. These stories were once integral to traditional societies-stories of seeds were often origin stories for entire communities and peoples, and the lore and beliefs that accumulated around seed varieties reflected the nearly familial way in which gardeners and farmers regarded their crops. Our society is, by and large, no longer connected to plants this way. But we like to think these Art Packs help to stitch our fragmented world back together: useful seeds, evocative art, both equally valuable to our experience of being human.