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Several times a week I turn south onto 30 RD from F 1/2, and pass by a front yard that has three white pots of coleus sitting on fenceposts. I've written about my own coleus fixation, but my coleus have been windowsill plants—I've rarely grown them outside. Not that I wouldn't—I just haven't gotten around to using them outside, because I'm so busy planting everything else!
Coleus has come a very long way since the '70s, when we all grew coleus in pots hung in macramé holders. I'd deny the macramé, except that there's photographic evidence. The '70s coleus was simply too tender to grow outside in Phoenix—too hot. The last five years have seen a real coleus boom—coleus can be a stunning plant both indoors and outdoors.
Coleus is a foliage plant—its flowers are unimportant, and only rob nutrients from the foliage. The range of foliage color and size now available in the coleus family is fantastic—coleus not only drank the Kool-aid, the Kool-aid was spiked with LSD! Every season at the nursery, new coleus varieties pop up and make me coo with pleasure. You'll find them next spring with tags identifying them as members of either genus Plectranthus, or genus Solenostemon -they're tropical natives.
The three pots of coleus on the fenceposts appear to be one variety. It's hard to tell, because the foliage has nearly disappeared—all you really notice about the pots are the very tall spikes of “flowers” that have sprung up on each plant. I cannot tell you how difficult it is for me to resist pulling over and cutting those flower spikes down—arrrghhh!
I'm telling you—coleus flowers are about the most wasteful things you can grow. They're pretty for about a day, and that's being generous. The longer you let the flowers grow, the greater the diminishment of the foliage. Given the opportunity, coleus, like any other plant, will sacrifice everything for the flowers, and in the case of this plant, that's a bad thing.
Coleus flowers are visible the moment they start sprouting, so it's very easy to pinch them back as soon as you see them. No matter how tall they are, get rid of them—late is better than never!
On Fridays, I always listen to Science Friday on FM 89.5, National Public Radio. I have a lot of favorite NPR programs, but Science Friday is always so interesting that I pinch myself—am I really lucky enough to live in a country that makes this kind of programming available to me without commercials?!!? Yes, I am.
Public radio listeners are afflicted with a chronic condition called “driveway moments.” Those are the moments in your car, when it's time to get out of your car, and you just can't, because the story you're listening to on the radio is too interesting to turn off. I had one of those today as Science Friday decided to talk about the latest word on bees. Remember bees? If you're a gardener, you're interested in bees.
The car was hot, so I finally made a run for it and got into my bedroom, where the radio is always on, so I could continue to listen. I was starving, but all the food was downstairs, where the radio isn't on, so I had a “bedroom moment” while my stomach growled, and I took notes.
There's still no clear answer to Colony Collapse Disease, the illness/phenomenon that has wiped out so many of our pollinators in the last few years. “All of the above” seems to be the only explanation at this point, but the search for the cause forges on. Without bees, there isn't much to eat besides meat, milk, and corn syrup.
If you go to www.sciencefriday.com, you can listen to the segment I couldn't stop listening to—it was in the second hour of the Aug. 7, 2009 show. Just in case you aren't going to do that, I'll share my notes.
Interest in the fate of bees, and in beekeeping, has skyrocketed around the country. Several nonprofit projects to track bees are soliciting “citizen scientists” to their cause, and cities are rewriting ordinances to allow some backyard beekeeping. Americans have decided to rescue their bees, and you know how we are when we decide to save something. Look out!
Two websites will hook you up to the save-the-bees movement: www.greatpollinatorproject.org is looking for bee watchers, and www.greatsunflower.org is looking for bee hunters—doesn't that sound fun? I didn't realize that there are more bee species than birds or butterflies, and that 70% of bees nest in the ground. IN THE GROUND! You can bee-watch by looking down! Bees like patches of bare ground to nest in, so you can encourage them to stay by keeping some bare patches in between your bee-attracting flowers. I don't have a problem producing bare spots in my gardens!
Honey bees are not the best pollinators—many other kinds of bees, including carpenter bees, are better at it than honey bees. Honey bees have to spend a lot of time feeding that queen and taking care of the babies—carpenter bees are solitary, and tunnel into wood. The damage is rarely more than cosmetic, but their value as pollinators is without price—build them some nesting posts!
People with bee allergies are rolling their eyes at the idea of encouraging bees. Bees are only interested in pollen—it's wasps that want your soda can. Bees aren't normally aggressive—if you get between them and a flower, they fly around you. Try not to swat at bees or wasps, and they'll probably move on. Learn to be still, and you can watch the bees instead of running from them. If you have an allergy, don't go bee watching alone!
We sold a new variety of tomato called Valencia this year, and I've been eating them, recently. They're bright orange, so they resemble orange bell peppers, and they're DELICIOUS! Yesss!
Judith is a master gardener, an American Rose Society-certified consulting rosarian, and a member of the Grand Valley Rose Society. She works at Mt. Garfield Greenhouse during the growing season. She will answer your questions at rosyoldie@gmail.com.
Coleus has come a very long way since the '70s, when we all grew coleus in pots hung in macramé holders. I'd deny the macramé, except that there's photographic evidence. The '70s coleus was simply too tender to grow outside in Phoenix—too hot. The last five years have seen a real coleus boom—coleus can be a stunning plant both indoors and outdoors.
Coleus is a foliage plant—its flowers are unimportant, and only rob nutrients from the foliage. The range of foliage color and size now available in the coleus family is fantastic—coleus not only drank the Kool-aid, the Kool-aid was spiked with LSD! Every season at the nursery, new coleus varieties pop up and make me coo with pleasure. You'll find them next spring with tags identifying them as members of either genus Plectranthus, or genus Solenostemon -they're tropical natives.
The three pots of coleus on the fenceposts appear to be one variety. It's hard to tell, because the foliage has nearly disappeared—all you really notice about the pots are the very tall spikes of “flowers” that have sprung up on each plant. I cannot tell you how difficult it is for me to resist pulling over and cutting those flower spikes down—arrrghhh!
I'm telling you—coleus flowers are about the most wasteful things you can grow. They're pretty for about a day, and that's being generous. The longer you let the flowers grow, the greater the diminishment of the foliage. Given the opportunity, coleus, like any other plant, will sacrifice everything for the flowers, and in the case of this plant, that's a bad thing.
Coleus flowers are visible the moment they start sprouting, so it's very easy to pinch them back as soon as you see them. No matter how tall they are, get rid of them—late is better than never!
On Fridays, I always listen to Science Friday on FM 89.5, National Public Radio. I have a lot of favorite NPR programs, but Science Friday is always so interesting that I pinch myself—am I really lucky enough to live in a country that makes this kind of programming available to me without commercials?!!? Yes, I am.
Public radio listeners are afflicted with a chronic condition called “driveway moments.” Those are the moments in your car, when it's time to get out of your car, and you just can't, because the story you're listening to on the radio is too interesting to turn off. I had one of those today as Science Friday decided to talk about the latest word on bees. Remember bees? If you're a gardener, you're interested in bees.
The car was hot, so I finally made a run for it and got into my bedroom, where the radio is always on, so I could continue to listen. I was starving, but all the food was downstairs, where the radio isn't on, so I had a “bedroom moment” while my stomach growled, and I took notes.
There's still no clear answer to Colony Collapse Disease, the illness/phenomenon that has wiped out so many of our pollinators in the last few years. “All of the above” seems to be the only explanation at this point, but the search for the cause forges on. Without bees, there isn't much to eat besides meat, milk, and corn syrup.
If you go to www.sciencefriday.com, you can listen to the segment I couldn't stop listening to—it was in the second hour of the Aug. 7, 2009 show. Just in case you aren't going to do that, I'll share my notes.
Interest in the fate of bees, and in beekeeping, has skyrocketed around the country. Several nonprofit projects to track bees are soliciting “citizen scientists” to their cause, and cities are rewriting ordinances to allow some backyard beekeeping. Americans have decided to rescue their bees, and you know how we are when we decide to save something. Look out!
Two websites will hook you up to the save-the-bees movement: www.greatpollinatorproject.org is looking for bee watchers, and www.greatsunflower.org is looking for bee hunters—doesn't that sound fun? I didn't realize that there are more bee species than birds or butterflies, and that 70% of bees nest in the ground. IN THE GROUND! You can bee-watch by looking down! Bees like patches of bare ground to nest in, so you can encourage them to stay by keeping some bare patches in between your bee-attracting flowers. I don't have a problem producing bare spots in my gardens!
Honey bees are not the best pollinators—many other kinds of bees, including carpenter bees, are better at it than honey bees. Honey bees have to spend a lot of time feeding that queen and taking care of the babies—carpenter bees are solitary, and tunnel into wood. The damage is rarely more than cosmetic, but their value as pollinators is without price—build them some nesting posts!
People with bee allergies are rolling their eyes at the idea of encouraging bees. Bees are only interested in pollen—it's wasps that want your soda can. Bees aren't normally aggressive—if you get between them and a flower, they fly around you. Try not to swat at bees or wasps, and they'll probably move on. Learn to be still, and you can watch the bees instead of running from them. If you have an allergy, don't go bee watching alone!
We sold a new variety of tomato called Valencia this year, and I've been eating them, recently. They're bright orange, so they resemble orange bell peppers, and they're DELICIOUS! Yesss!
Judith is a master gardener, an American Rose Society-certified consulting rosarian, and a member of the Grand Valley Rose Society. She works at Mt. Garfield Greenhouse during the growing season. She will answer your questions at rosyoldie@gmail.com.
