Ivydene Gardens Photo coleus Gallery:
Photos taken by Chris Garnons-Williams using a digital camera in the original size and as a thumbnail.
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Row 1 (Odd Row) has the Pass-Through Camera image of Thumbnail image named in Row 2 Row 2 (Even Row) has same image reduced to fit the image frame of 400 x 300 pixels as a Click on either image and drag to your desktop. Copying the pages and then clicking on the images to drag them may not work. |
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Solenostemon scutellarioides from Plants & Flowers by Plants Rescue:- "Common name: Flame Nettle, Painted Nettle, Coleus, Painted Leaf, Poor Man’s Croton, Jewels of the Garden Family: Lamiaceae Synonymous: Coleus blumei
Distribution and habitat: Solenostemon scutellarioides is native to south east Asia and Malaysia. Growing to 60–75cm (24–30 inch) tall and wide, it is a bushy, woody-based evergreen perennial, widely grown for its highly decorative variegated leaves. It has been assiduously hybridized over the years into a very large number of vegetative propagated and seed propagated strains with an almost infinite number of leaf color combinations including most colors of the spectrum except true blue. Description: Although Solenostemon scutellarioides plants are perennials, many growers treat them as temporary foliage plants, to be enjoyed and then discarded when past their best. This is because they are sometimes difficult to overwinter and also because they are easy to grow from cuttings. Their soft, rather thin leaves very considerably in shape, size and colour (which can be almost any shape of yellow, red, orange, green or brown or a mixture of three or more of these). Solenostemon scutellarioides plants have opposite leaves and blue to lilac colored flower spikes. Such flowers as they produce have little decorative value and are best nipped out when they are still developing; this procedure will help to keep the plants bushy. Solenostemon scutellarioides is the only species of Solenostemon commonly grown as indoor plant. Some of its forms have hart-shaped leaves and others have slender, sometimes contorted pendulous leaves. Young seedlings only 2-5cm (0.8-2 inch) high, but already showing their true colour, can be bought in spring and these may grow into 60cm (24 inch) tall plants in one season. Named hybrids of this species are also frequently available. Houseplant care: All Solenostemon scutellarioides should have their growing tips nipped out regularly to help them remain bushy. The flowers are best pinched out before they form to keep the plant in good shape. If the plant is kept for a second season, prune it back to about one third of its original size in late winter or very beginning of spring. Light: Provide bright light at all times – including several hours a day of direct sunlight, if possible. Insufficient light will result in spindly growth. Temperatures: Solenostemon scutellarioides do well in warm rooms. In temperatures above 18°C (64°F), though, the air should be humidified by standing plants on trays of damp pebbles or moist peat moss. If the temperature is allowed to fall much bellow 13°C (55°F) leaves are in danger of wilting and dropping down. Watering: These plants should be watered plentifully as often as necessary to keep the potting mixture thoroughly moist. If the mixture is permitted to dry out even for a short period, the leaves of Solenostemon scutellarioides will collapse; and although plants may appear to recover fully when they are watered once more the lower leaves will probably still drop off. If the plant is being kept over winter then reduce watering and keep this plant on the dry side. Avoid getting the velvety leaves wet. Hard water will cause white spots which cannot be washed off. Always use room-temperature water when watering these houseplants. Feeding: Apply a liquid fertiliser about every two weeks throughout the active growth period. Potting and repotting: Use a soil based potting mixture. Young plants should be moved every two months into pots two size larger. Solenostemon scutellarioides should not be underpotted; they need room for their active roots to develop freely. Gardening: Solenostemon scutellarioides plants are frost tender, so in most climates, they are grown as annuals. They are heat-tolerant, but they do less well in full sun in subtropical areas than in the shade. In mild areas (no snow in winter), plants can usually be kept as perennials if well managed. In colder areas, they are often grown as annuals, since the plants are not hardy and become leggy with age. Location: Plant Solenostemon scutellarioides plants in partial shade setting. In hot areas, the colors of the plant are likely to be more intense when it is planted in shaded areas rather than in full sun. Also, the plants will require less water in shaded than in full sun position. Soil: Solenostemon scutellarioides prefers fertile, evenly moist, well-draining soil. It is adapted to chalk, clay, clay loam, loam, loamy sand, peat, sandy clay, sandy clay loam and sandy loam soils. Irrigation: It requires an evenly moist well-drained soil for optimal growth, but will die in standing water. If the soil is allowed to dry out, the foliage will wilt, but normally will recover quickly when water is provided. Water your plants thoroughly at planting time. Propagation: Young, freshly rooted plants overwinter much better than older plants. Tip cuttings about 5-8cm (2-3 inch) long taken in early autumn will root easily either in the standard potting mixture or water. Seed propagation is also possible, but they will not come true from seeds. Problems: Usually problems appear as the result of incorrect treatment of the plant. In hot, dry rooms red spider mites can cause discolouration and leaf withering. Leaf fall indicates that the plant is in a poor light position. Straggly growth may also be due to poor light or it may occur as a consequence of failure to pinch out the growing tips. Uses and display: Solenostemon scutellarioides has the most incredible foliage with colors and color combinations that no other plant species can offer. The leaves are gorgeous with their frilly edges and unique color patterns. These plants are easy-care, versatile and their foliage colour, again, can only be described as spectacular! They combine well with flowering annuals to create more texture and interest or it is a great stand-alone in a container or bed. These plants can be used for group or mass as garden annuals in beds and borders; pots, containers, window boxes, hanging baskets; houseplants."
From iGarden Home of The Compulsive Gardener in Australia:- Plectranthus scutellarioides is cultivated outdoors in subtropical and tropical regions. It can only tolerate occasional very light frosts. International Coleus Society Cultivar Trials and Registration: For the Year 2016 by Laurence C. Hatch. International Coleus Society. This 104 page guide is the State of the Genus report in the genus Coleus, an important group of tropical, annual bedding plants and house plants. This 2016 update covers the full array of named, unnamed, and trademarked clones evaluated by the International Coleus Society in their "real world" containerized trial garden. It also covers the last two years of cultivar registrations up to #1551 (added December 2016) with detailed descriptions and very large, high-resolution, digital images. Many cultivars have never been published before and several appear no where else in literature. Can Coleus be planted in Water? Article by Home Guides:- Where have all the Coleus gone? by the Frustrated Gardener. |
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Single Flowers provide honeybees with pollen to collect for the protein in a bee's diet, whereas double flowers do not provide this pollen. |
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"The archetypal flower reads from outside in – sepals (often green), then petals, male stamen and finally the central female parts. In the single dahlia stamens with their yellow pollen which is available for honeybees to collect, can be seen clearly. Pollen provides most of the protein in a bee’s diet. Double flowers, stamens have been transformed into extra petals for a fuller, showier bloom. The lack of pollen means pollination cannot occur and the flower remains open for longer, waiting. Both of these features have made double flowers attractive to horticulturists and much energy has been put into breeding double varieties. Highly bred cultivars are much more likely to be doubles than their species (natural) counterparts. Plants with the name ‘flore pleno’ should ring warning bells as it means ‘with a full flower’ and will almost certainly mean it is a double. Nectaries (rarely visible) store nectar which provides the carbohydrate part of a bee’s diet. They are easier to access in single flowers than in doubles. Some plant species are good honey bee plants in their single form but not when bred as doubles: Hawthorn (Crataegus ‘Paul’s Scarlet‘), Japanese anemones (Anemone x hybrida), Geums – semi-double cultivars ‘Miss Bradshaw’ and ‘Lady Stratheden’, Cinquefoil (Potentilla), Clematis (such as the strange ‘Viennetta’) and Hollyhock (Alcea rosea). For rose fans you may want to learn that only the species roses (Dog rose Rosa canina and R. rugosa) offer food (pollen only) for honeybees. It is understandable that having as much colour, for as long as possible, has been a priority in British gardens prone as they are to the blanketing green of a wet summer. The fact that plant breeding has followed the demand of gardeners makes simple economic sense. It is nature that is beginning to suffer however. Breeding away pollen serves neither the plant species, as it can’t reproduce itself, nor the insects whose main source of protein it is. The question is, can designers influence public taste sufficiently for nurseries to change their ways or would it put the breeders out of a job?" from Beeginner Beekeeper.
Anagallis monellii 'Skylover Blue' has Single Flowers
whereas Dahlia 'Blue Wish' has Double Flowers (details about Double Flowers in row further down), which has many more petals:-
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The following details come from Cactus Art:- "A flower is the the complex sexual reproductive structure of Angiosperms, typically consisting of an axis bearing perianth parts, androecium (male) and gynoecium (female). Bisexual flower show four distinctive parts arranged in rings inside each other which are technically modified leaves: Sepal, petal, stamen & pistil. This flower is referred to as complete (with all four parts) and perfect (with "male" stamens and "female" pistil). The ovary ripens into a fruit and the ovules inside develop into seeds. Incomplete flowers are lacking one or more of the four main parts. Imperfect (unisexual) flowers contain a pistil or stamens, but not both. The colourful parts of a flower and its scent attract pollinators and guide them to the nectary, usually at the base of the flower tube.
Androecium (male Parts or stamens) Gynoecium (female Parts or carpels or pistil) It is made up of the stigma, style, and ovary. Each pistil is constructed of one to many rolled leaflike structures. Stigma This is the part of the pistil which receives the pollen grains and on which they germinate. Style This is the long stalk that the stigma sits on top of. Ovary The part of the plant that contains the ovules. Ovule The part of the ovary that becomes the seeds. Petal The colorful, often bright part of the flower (corolla). Sepal The parts that look like little green leaves that cover the outside of a flower bud (calix). (Undifferentiated "Perianth segment" that are not clearly differentiated into sepals and petals, take the names of tepals.)"
The following details come from Nectary Genomics:- "NECTAR. Many flowering plants attract potential pollinators by offering a reward of floral nectar. The primary solutes found in most nectars are varying ratios of sucrose, glucose and fructose, which can range from as little a 8% (w/w) in some species to as high as 80% in others. This abundance of simple sugars has resulted in the general perception that nectar consists of little more than sugar-water; however, numerous studies indicate that it is actually a complex mixture of components. Additional compounds found in a variety of nectars include other sugars, all 20 standard amino acids, phenolics, alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenes, vitamins, organic acids, oils, free fatty acids, metal ions and proteins. NECTARIES. An organ known as the floral nectary is responsible for producing the complex mixture of compounds found in nectar. Nectaries can occur in different areas of flowers, and often take on diverse forms in different species, even to the point of being used for taxonomic purposes. Nectaries undergo remarkable morphological and metabolic changes during the course of floral development. For example, it is known that pre-secretory nectaries in a number of species accumulate large amounts of starch, which is followed by a rapid degradation of amyloplast granules just prior to anthesis and nectar secretion. These sugars presumably serve as a source of nectar carbohydrate. WHY STUDY NECTAR? Nearly one-third of all worldwide crops are dependent on animals to achieve efficient pollination. In addition, U.S. pollinator-dependent crops have been estimated to have an annual value of up to $15 billion. Many crop species are largely self-incompatible (not self-fertile) and almost entirely on animal pollinators to achieve full fecundity; poor pollinator visitation has been reported to reduce yields of certain species by up to 50%." |
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Further details on other plants, which are bee-pollinated rather than wind-pollinated:- |
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Bee-Pollinated Bloom Plant Index. Click on the OOO in the Index below to link to those bee-pollinated plants of that flower colour in that month or any of Enumber indicates Empty Index Page. |
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Inner circle of Grey is 12 months of Unusual or Multi-Coloured Flower Colour |
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Bulb and Perennial Height from Text Border |
Brown = 0-12 inches (0-30 cms) |
Blue = 12-24 inches (30-60 cms) |
Green = 24-36 inches (60-90 cms) |
Red = 36-72 inches (90- 180 cms) |
Black = 72+ inches (180+ cms) |
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Shrub Height from Text Border |
Brown = 0-12 inches (0-30 cms) |
Blue = 12-36 inches (30-90 cms) |
Green = 36-60 inches (90- 150 cms) |
Red = 60-120 inches (150- 300 cms) |
Black = 120+ inches (300+ cms) |
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Tree Height from Text Border |
Brown = 0-240 inches (0- 600 cms) |
Blue = 240- 480 inches (600- 1200 cms) |
Green = 480+ inches (1200 + cms) |
Red = Potted |
Black = Use in Small Garden |
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Climber Height from Text Border |
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Blue = 0-36 inches (0-90 cms) |
Green = 36-120 inches (90-300 cms) |
Red = 120+ inches (300+ cms) |
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Bamboo, Bedding, Conifer, Fern, Grass, Herb, Rhododendron, Rose, Soft Fruit, Top Fruit, Vegetable and Wildflower Height from Text Border |
Blue = 0-24 inches (0-60 cms) |
Green = 24-72 inches (60- 180 cms) |
Red = 72+ inches (180+ cms) |
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Plant Soil Moisture from Text Background |
Wet Soil |
Moist Soil |
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Dry Soil |
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"Soils vary enormously in characteristics, but the size of the particles that make up a soil defines its gardening characteristics:
The dominating particle size gives soil its characteristics and because the tiny clay particles have a huge surface area for a given volume of clay they dominate the other particles: Clay soils have over 25 percent clay. Also known as heavy soils, these are potentially fertile as they hold nutrients bound to the clay minerals in the soil. But they also hold a high proportion of water due to the capillary attraction of the tiny spaces between the numerous clay particles. They drain slowly and take longer to warm up in spring than sandy soils. Clay soils are easily compacted when trodden on while wet and they bake hard in summer, often cracking noticeably. Sandy soils have high proportion of sand and little clay. Also known as light soils, these soils drain quickly after rain or watering, are easy to cultivate and work. They warm up more quickly in spring than clay soils. But on the downside, they dry out quickly and are low in plant nutrients, which are quickly washed out by rain. Sandy soils are often very acidic. Silt soils, comprised mainly of intermediate sized particles, are fertile, fairly well drained and hold more moisture than sandy soils, but are easily compacted Loams are comprised of a mixture of clay, sand and silt that avoid the extremes of clay or sandy soils and are fertile, well-drained and easily worked. They can be clay-loam or sandy-loam depending on their predominant composition and cultivation characteristics. Peat soils are mainly organic matter and are usually very fertile and hold much moisture. They are seldom found in gardens. Chalky or lime-rich soils may be light or heavy but are largely made up of calcium carbonate and are very alkaline." from Royal Horticultural Society . |
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The following details about DOUBLE FLOWERS comes from Wikipedia:- "Double-flowered" describes varieties of flowers with extra petals, often containing flowers within flowers. The double-flowered trait is often noted alongside the scientific name with the abbreviation fl. pl. (flore pleno, a Latin ablative form meaning "with full flower"). The first abnormality to be documented in flowers, double flowers are popular varieties of many commercial flower types, including roses, camellias and carnations. In some double-flowered varieties all of the reproductive organs are converted to petals — as a result, they are sexually sterile and must be propagated through cuttings. Many double-flowered plants have little wildlife value as access to the nectaries is typically blocked by the mutation.
There is further photographic, diagramatic and text about Double Flowers from an education department - dept.ca.uky.edu - in the University of Kentucky in America.
"Meet the plant hunter obsessed with double-flowering blooms" - an article from The Telegraph. |
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"From elaborate public garden designs and street planters to the smallest front garden, bedding plants provide a temporary decorative seasonal display for beds, borders, containers and hanging baskets. Bedding can be grown from seed, bought as young seedlings (plug plants) or purchased as pot-grown specimens, often in multi-packs and cellular trays, ready for planting." from Bedding plants and displays page by the Royal Horticultural Society. Some of the Mail-order suppliers of bedding plants:-
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