Pls share your pics of & observations Coleus flowers! (Yes, I know about the "you're supposed to remove the blooms" thing, so pls don't take the discussion in that direction. I leave the flowers on, various flying critters love them.)

From what I've observed, the actual flowers are always a shade of lavender, which can vary in intensity. But, IDK how observant I am, because it just occurred to me this weekend that they sometimes look really different at a glance because of diff stem & bract color. Some are almost white, some are very dark.

Indian Summer (dark stems & bracts) & Florida Sun Jade (lighter S&B's) together:



Indian Summer:



Electric Lime (very light S&B's, very pale but still lavender blooms):

Tiffany I tend to leave the flowers on mine as well and then get to enjoy little volunteer Coleus popping up here and there.

Yes! For the first time ever, I've had some this year too, they're SO cute!

They are!!

no point in leaving them on in our cold area.. would never self seed here.. I will let them flower towards the end of the season if I already took cuttings to root

They won't germinate here either, Allison. I do remove them since they just don't thrill me.

I let the indoor plants flower, but now I will be looking to see the bracts.
I have several which need potting on.

I'm letting a few flower now that I have taken cuttings. I think you are right about it being the color of the stems that make the flower colors look different. Most all seem to be some shade of lavender. Some look a little more white or blue. Here are a couple with different color stems that really have about the same light lavender colored flowers.

Beautiful, Susan!

very pretty

This cute little butterfly is about an inch across. I can't remember its' name.

Pretty!!

Found blooms on 'Perilla Magilla' while taking cuttings today. Never seen this one bloom before (except a puny not-fully-formed bud on 1 stem last winter, pic also in database.) So often called a Coleus, I thought it might be enjoyable in this discussion too.

Awesome

Onewish1 said:no point in leaving them on in our cold area.. would never self seed here.. I will let them flower towards the end of the season if I already took cuttings to root

I spread thousands of seeds in my garden, going to see if next year they germinate. Plants can't handle cold, but who knows, mabye seeds can?

they are such slow growers .. they wouldn't be anything worth seeing by the end of summer here.. usually start my seeds in January or February inside to be a nice size in spring

The sprouts that showed up in my yard this year (starting about June, I think, from seeds falling off of plants) didn't get big enough for me to bother ever trying to do anything with Coleus seeds unless/until I move to a tropical location. I prefer Coleus as big shrubs, not itty bitty plants, though not saying there's anything wrong with that, just what I prefer to spend time doing or not doing. No room for starting them inside @ my house, and doubt they would sprout inside anyway because of cold; we only heat part of the house, while we are in the particular room. I totally enjoyed observing the little sprouts though. They're more than welcome to show up anytime!

Can't wait to hear if you get sprouts, Keith!

Any surprise babies are always fun

I have let all my Coleus flower through COMPLETELY eventually cut and dry the stalks to collect the thousands of Seeds!!!!

More Flowering Stalks which by Seasons end here netted me thousands of seeds which many are now germinating nicely in my indoor Greenhouse!!!