Debbie, one year I did try wintersowing coleus. But remember, I'm in a much, much colder area than yours. Coleus need a fair amount of heat to germinate, and then they grow very slowly for the first 6-8 weeks. Those coleus looked good in August + Sept., but until then you couldn't even see them. Not good enough for me. Wintersowing them in your climate would probably work much better than in mine.
Also, I don't have much shade. None of the seed coleus I've grown, either WSown or under lights, were tolerant of any sun here. (While we have cold winters, we also usually have HOT summers). The Versa series coleus are supposed to be sun tolerant, but I didn't find them so.
Many of the cutting grown, named coleus like those from Rosy Dawn, are very heat/humidity/sun tolerant. They thrive in hot sun. RD's site tells you which are sun tolerant.
My front bed gets about half sun, shade during the hottest afternoon hours. But this bed in my back yard gets full, hot sun all day and those coleus don't miss a beat.
Karen
