Care

Follow the care tips that came with the package or find them here. Give the plant a week to acclimate to new surroundings. Coleus isn't high maintenance plant, but you need to give it some time to adjust.

Care

Your plant needs time and light. 

• Give your Coleus time. Young plant colors may be different from the mature plant; moreover, older leaves coloring may differ from younger leaves. 

• Experiment with light conditions. Some Coleus varieties prefer shade: their leaves bleach (in worst cases get a sunburn) or turn darker solid colors in the prolonged direct sunlight. Other Coleus varieties prefer full or part sun: their patterns change, colors become deeper, new colors appear. The optimum amount of sun or shade each plant needs to thrive: Full Sun (6+ hours), Part Sun (4-6 hours), Full Shade (up to 4 hours).

Learn more about your variety preference, and have fun experimenting.

Note: Nitrogen in the fertilizer makes Coleus colors richer in green.

Care

Transplanting is alsways additional stress for a plant. That's why we recomend to wait for a few days after receiving Coleus by mail to give your plant time to adjust and recover from shipping. To help Coleus adjust faster when transplanting: 

• assess if Coleus recovered from shipping stress and got adjusted to its new conditions,

• gently push the root ball and soil out of the nursery pot, 

• if soil doesn't have any mold signs, do not try to remove it; otherwise you can damage the roots,

• plant the roots ball with original soil just below the soil level of the new pot,

• Coleus needs well-drained soil, we add perlite for extra aeration and drainage,

• don't water right away if Coleus is already well hydrated, wait a day before watering it in a new pot,

• place newly trasplanted Coleus away from the direct light for 2-3 days.

Care

Water it once you see the soil is almost dry and the pot weight feels light.

Problems

In general, if you just received this plant:

• Keep it away from the direct light. 

• Water it with just water, no fertilizer or anything else added. When watering, make sure water doesn't get on the leaves. 

• If the temperature stays above 50F, take it outside for good air circulation for a few hours a day, or keep it in a well-ventulated place, but not in the draft.

Problems

Coleus drinks water and recover pretty fast, but still takes 4+ hours (depends on the size of the plant) to fully rehydrate. Give it time but monitor closely.

If the plant won’t bounce back and won’t start getting its turgor back within next 8 hours, gently pull it out from the pot, wash off the soil to check the roots. Healthy Coleus roots are white. Check Coleus stem: healthy stem is sturdy and solid (not opaque).  

If roots and stem are healthy, place roots and lower part of the stem in water. In 24 hours it should rehydrate and become perky.

Watch it closely as it’s in the water for any signs of the stem rot. If stem turns translucent, yellowish or brownish, soft to touch or disintegrating, cut it 1/8" above the affected area, where you see the stem tissue healthy and green, with sterile blade or scissors, and place the plant in the water to re-root.

Problems

Coleus may drop leaves for a few reasons: recovering from stress (especially after mailing), adjusting to new environment, adjusting to changes in watering schedule, allowing for better development of its side offsets, redirecting the juices to new growth on the tip... Continue the regular care regime and check its stem: healthy stem is sturdy and solid (not opaque).

Purchase

Unfortunately, we have no control over USPS delivery services. You can reach out to USPS and submit Help Request Form and Missing Mail Search Request (scroll to #2 & #3): www.usps.com/help/missing-mail.htm

Care

You'll find that others say that the dichondra is somewhat easy to grow, and that "somewhat" usually refers to the first part of the plant lifecycle: germination, carrying for seedlings, and pricking out. This first part may be challenging, as the timing from planting seeds to seedlings ready to be transplanted may test your patience and devotion. Dichondra at the beginning of its lifecycle grows very slowly, it does take its time and sometimes has a mind on its own. After young plants are established, it is true that dichondra is easy to grow and becomes a fast grower once mature. So we say that you need to "tame" the dichondra.

Below is the germination protocol that we use for our dichondra stock crop and seeds germination trials:

• We prep a well-draining mix, moisten the soil throughout and remove any excess water.

• We press the seeds into the soil but don't totally cover them, as they need light to germinate. Also, we don't leave them laying on the surface either, as they need moister from the soil to germinate.

• We cover the tray or pot with a transparent (for light to go thru) lid to create a greenhouse effect.

• We keep the soil lightly moist but observe the condensation on the lid not to be heavy (large water drops) as it may contribute to the mold and rot development.

• We keep this closed container under growing lights or bright light exposure at room temperature (60-70F).
  The earliest dichondra seed germination we observed was around 5 days, on average it's 10-14 days. However, Dichondra is known for not even germination, and some seeds may take even a few months to germinate. The latest germination we had was 6 months; while other seeds germinated much earlier, this little guy was just sitting there until it was ready for the world.

• Once germinated, we keep the seedling covered another week, reducing the moisture below the lid to almost no condensation, just visibly moist soil, as seedlings are more prone to develop rot in a humid environment. After a week we gradually expose them to the open air, by lifting a lid to create a small opening, when widening this opening little by little to train them to dry air.

• After 2-4 sets of the real leaves, we start pricking them out to be translated into their own pots (if they are not in their own pots originally).

As you can see we keep it very simple to make sure our seeds a viable for any basic-skills grower enthusiast; for the same reasons, we don't use any growth hormones or industry-grade chemicals to accelerate the process. And when the buyers share with us photos of their progress growing dichondra, I usually ask them how they approach it to sort of collect their tricks and hacks. Below is something that I heard from other buyers (full disclaimer: we didn't vet those for legibility and don't use these methods ourselves, so sharing them for awareness only).

Some people soak the seeds for a few hours or overnight before sowing. Some use plain water. Some use adaptogen or seed growth stimulator (phytohormone). Some soak in a rooting hormone available for sale in Home Depot/Lowes/Amazon. Some use diluted honey.

Some buyers moisten the soil with very hot, almost boiling water, wait for it to cool down a bit and when sow seeds. They say it softens the dichondra seed hull and lets the moisture penetrate it more easily later. They say it awakens the seed, should be done only once, and later keep the tray at room temperature. They also say using hot or boiling water disinfects the soil and minimizes the development of mold or rot.

Some push the dichondra seeds into the mix and then sprinkle them over with the soil to loosely cover them, so the seeds are covered with moisture all around, but yet the thin layer of soil on top still allows the seed to be exposed to the light.

Some buyers sprout the dichondra seeds using covered moistened cotton rounds first, they said it's easier for them to control how wet these rounds are. Once they see new sprouts, they transplant the seeds into the soil and continue keeping them under the lid in the moist soil till they see sets of real leaves to come out.

Some buyers use the heating mats to help dichondra germination, others are against using the heating mats, they believe that the temperature of the soil should be a bit colder than air (with all moist evaporation) and that the seeds are sensitive to this difference as to a trigger a sprout.

As you can see there are a few ways to "tame" dichondra; people are experimenting and finding what works best for them. And this is what makes it an exciting personal achievement in addition to the beautiful plant that you get in the end.