Coleus or Painted Nettle

The Latin name is Solenostemon scutellarioides.
A perennial plant, kept as a houseplant and in gardens, but it is not frost tolerant.
I got cuttings  a few years ago from my dear friend, it is very easy to root - I always root them
in water and when they are rooted I put them in soil.
Coleus likes a lot of light for the colorful foliage- I've read that they most of all like partial shade,
but here they also get a bunch of direct sunlight.
I have to check the soil a couple of times a week, but when it is really hot I have to check dayly if they have enough to drink, but once the temperature is going down, you have to be careful not to overwater.
In the beginning I kept the coleus in the livingroom during wintertime, but the last year I kept it in
the closed veranda at the back of the house, it has a big single glass window at the top, and with a
little heater it is just not freezing there.
My coleus did really very well, but I was so stupid to let it hang under the big glass window during
the frost we had in january:-(
I could save 5 very tiny cuttings and rooted them, and now the nettle is bigger than ever before.
I keep it indoors, because it is so large.

Here it is in the closed veranda- during the summer the doors are open.

Because it's difficult to see how big it is on a picture, I asked Mart to hold it...

I have to mention that Mart is 1.90 mtr tall :-)


The last picture are the two nettles that I keep outside - I don't know for how much longer,
depends on the night temperatures, but here, close at sea, it takes longer for the nights to get
cold.

Some people only like the folliage and remove the flowers, but I like the blue flowers also ( and with
me a lot of insects!).