How to sow coleus?

Coleus is an annual plant, a tad flashy, prized for its slightly velvety and incredibly colourful foliage, displaying every colour of the rainbow. There are many solid or varieties, variegated, bicolour or even tricolour, ranging from yellow through rust to almost black purple. Tender, Coleus is grown in ground or in pots from early summer until frosts or as an indoor plant. It is ideal for pots and window boxes and a good conservatory plant. In garden or house, it appreciates a sunny or semi-shaded position and a light, rich, cool soil. It is perfect as colourful accents on borders, rockeries or in summer flowerbeds. Here are our tips to succeed with your coleus seeds sowing!

Material needed

Coleus seeds are sown under cover all year round.

in Seed compost (see product)
A tray or seed module, a heated mini propagator
Compost
A spray bottle
Plant-fibre buckets (biodegradable pots)

Coleus seeds are sown under cover all year round.

How to sow coleus seeds?

Fill in a tray with a mixture of 2/3 seed compost and 1/3 compost
Firm surface lightly with flat of hand
Sow your coleus seeds thinly on surface of tray without covering, as they need light to germinate
Water with a fine spray regularly to keep soil moist but not waterlogged until emergence, which takes 10 to 20 days
Place tray in light on heated bench or in a heated mini propagator at a temperature of 20 to 25 °C
When seedlings have 2 or 3 leaves, pot them into 7 cm buckets, keep them always warm
About 15 days before planting out, gradually harden off your young plants outdoors
When they have strengthened sufficiently, transplant into a pot at least 15 cm in diameter or into ground, spacing about 30 cm apart, late May to early June once last frosts have passed