ColorBlaze® Mini Me™ Watermelon Coleus

Color Blaze® Mini Me™ Watermelon Coleus is a new container plant that is gorgeous growing in the shade or full sun. Plectranthus scutellarioides have such fine, almost lacy foliage and juicy bright colors that you will want to add this tender perennial to all of your mixed seasonal plantings. Mini Me™ Watermelon Coleus will grow nonstop through even the hottest summer months and still look good until the first frost of fall.

Color Blaze® Coleus can be grown as either a short-lived perennial in growing zones 10-11 or as an annual bedding and container plant everywhere else. It is hardy enough to be planted out early in the spring after the nighttime temperatures are above 50 degrees F and will handle heat and humidity easily without dropping leaves. Deer rarely browse on Coleus, and rabbits do not like to nibble the textured leaves. The naturally mounding shape of Mini Me™ makes it a great filler element in a container or a thriller when planted on its own as part of a container garden,

Color Blaze® Mini Me™ Watermelon Coleus Care

Coleus is very easy to grow and is flexible enough to tolerate both sun and shade. Use a container that has plenty of drainage and fill it with an all-purpose potting mix. Coleus growing in the ground prefers good drainage and a lighter-texture soil that doesn’t hold moisture long. Wet roots will rot quickly on Coleus. The plants prefer to dry between waterings and grow best alongside plants with similar needs. Pinching out the flowers will help the plant remain compact with dense foliage. Leaf stems can also be pinched out regularly if the plant begins to grow leggy or the leaves show unwanted colors. 

As a foliage houseplant, Coleus can be overwintered in the colder USDA growing zones. Bring the plant indoors or take cuttings from nonflowering stems well before nighttime temperatures reach 50 degrees F. Cuttings will root quickly in water and can be planted in small pots to grow through the winter. Potted plants should be cut back hard to rejuvenate the foliage and placed in a window with indirect, bright sun. Water sparingly until the weather warms in the spring. Coleus growing outdoors year-round needs to be cut back to fresh foliage shoots in the spring. This will encourage more colorful new growth, keeping the plant from getting a woody stem.  

Color Blaze® Mini Me™ Watermelon Coleus Spacing

Watermelon Coleus will reach an overall height of 20 inches and a spread of 18 inches. Allow for good air circulation around plants by spacing out plants in the ground at 16 inches on the center. One plant can be grown in a 10-inch diameter pot or three plants grown in a 14-16 inch pot.

ColorBlaze® Mini Me™ Watermelon Coleus Information