A selection of TROPICALS, some in very limited supply, covering the middle part of the letter "C":
This page contains the following plant groups: Coleus (Solenostemmon) Part I.
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COLEUS VARIETIES for the 2010 SEASON
The handful of plantsmen still pretending to disdain COLEUS simply have not caught up with the Victorian gardeners! For those still uncomfortable with the "C" word, simply announce that you collect Solenostemon scutellarioides cultivars--keeping in touch with current nomenclature. Millenium fashion embraces brilliant color & delicate detail from shocking tattoos to detailed needlework. The Coleus & their Plectranthus kin allow many choices between these two extreme poles from the punk brash to the shyly subtle--a point substantiated by a ramble though our Coleus Photo Gallery on the Internet at http://www.rareplants.com/gallery2.html. Or refer back to your old copy of Fine Gardening for color photos. We can send you a selection of types for standards, for golden (or red or purple) hues, for baskets, for brilliant borders in sun or shade, for windowboxes or imposing urns.
For the following two collections, tell us if bedding, basket, standards, or topiary fills your Victorian urge to order a passel of these glitzy guys.
Over the years we have received much valuable feedback from plant friends as to which cultivars do well in New England with chill nights even during summer, in Oregon costal areas with high levels of humidity, in the Gulf Coast area with downright oppressive summer spells, and so on: we can gather a collection for your area with considerable confidence as to best performing cultivars, if you so desire. If you want particular hybrids by name, do not order a collection but instead order plants individually by stock numbers from the following list. Once again we are preparing this list with freezing weather outside in January, and thus cannot accurately predict which cultivars will be most successfully propagated for spring shipping. Please allow us to substitute with similar hybrids--often a better selection has been trialed and is waiting in the wings. If you do stipulate "No Substitutes" we will hold your order until these specific plants are ready--if you call to rush such a stipulated order, we will automatically substitute since a small private business cannot hire enough office staff to run back & forth from office to pulling areas to shipping houses for such requests. If you do need a very specifically named Coleus in some quantity, you must allow us the lead time to make sure you are shipped the correct one as we are NOT a liner farm, but a specialty nursery known world wide for our wide range of rare plants not available in the general trade. Nearly all Coleus are extremely cold/chill sensitive (especially if planted in cool soil); thus, we will ship them as weather conditions dictate so that you will not receive a package of mush. Please remember that we have absolutely no control over our weather conditions, and no control over your weather conditions either.
The following descriptions reflect observation of plants grown in bright light locations--shady locales & spring greenhouse conditions result in more green & smoky tones; some like 'Hanover Surprise' seem to change their colors every month no matter how situated! Please be aware that the camera cannot perfectly cope with the true spectrums of Coleuroid reds (which often look mauvish in the shots) and purples (which veer into bluish lilacs sometimes). We are pleased to announce that we have ever more and yet even more Coleus in the works, which will be appearing in this list shortly. Few, if any, of the cultivars we offer fail as "Sun Coleus" in the more temperate zoned areas of the United States and Canada--please check with your local publications if you are uncertain of a particular cultivar's performance in full exposure in South Florida or Texas because a number of evaluations have been published for you by universities and by public gardens. None of the following are seed produced strains. All are vegetatively propagated to keep the particular clone pure. We are very aware that plant tags and labels tend to morph at public gardens' plantings and that some nurseries rename or (for an unknown given to them) creatively assign a new name to a cultivar/hybrid already quite well known by its original name--please do not be upset if we send you the correctly named one--especially as we are often the originating hybridizers of the newly renamed! (Yes, the widely available Proven Winners' 'Amoura' is merely a recent mireading of the label of Frielings' well known hybrid, 'Aurora'--and Ken's name still makes a great more sense in describing the colors of that hybrid Coleus.) We are delighted that so many of you have found us through initially purchasing a "Stained Glass Coleus" at your local garden center: these are indeed the patented hybrids of our ongoing breeding programs.
Watch for some of our best appearing in garden centers under the name Stained Glass Works[ppaf]
Advisory for Spring 2010 Coleus Shipping.
We no longer can accept rush orders especially going to the Far South and the Florida area for Spring delivery unless you understand that our Greenhouses are in the North and we have to wait until crops mature. We do not have the same climate as Florida! We try to get Coleus shipped starting around the first of May each year. If you want your Coleus shipped by early May, then we recommend 1) giving us a couple subsititues, 2) allowing us on large coleus orders to backorder if we need to, or 3) ordering one of our fabulous Coleus Collections! If you order our Collections, this gives us the ability to ship your order earlier with a lot of our best and sturdiest Coleus, our choice. We are far enough north that we cannot get some Coleus into the rooting stage until late April or early May. We try to ship from our greenhouses all year, but weather does play a big part in our crops. Some plants are shipped at the best time for that item. If by chance you receive your order in early June (almost always because you have stipulated "no substitutes" for very tempermental hybrids), you will be surprised by how much these plants will grow in just a few short weeks. But most customers order strong growing hybrids suitable for bedding and containers--and these are available early and late for shipping. Don't forgert you can always correspond by phone or email with us concerning order status.Our email address and our Toll Free Numbers are given on the Order Confirmation letter as well as on our site.