Coleus blumei, 'Chocolate Mint'

Grown as a flamboyant bedding plant or conservatory houseplant, Coleus (recently renamed Solenostemon) comes in a multitude of forms and colours, with dramatic foliage ranging from bright reds, yellows, greens, bronzes, pinks and browns. This ornamental member of the mint family is native to Indonesia and is therefore tender. Although many species are technically perennials, they are typically grown as annuals.

The prettiest and neatest Coleus to come along in quite a while, 'Chocolate Mint' offers rich cocoa coloured foliage with a trim mint-green scalloped edge on mounding plants. The leaves are very uniform, turn them over and they gleam bright mint. Scrumptious!
'Chocolate Mint' is a 'Premium Sun' variety, these large cultivars reaches 30 to 35cm (12 to 14in) high and about 25 to 30cm (10 to 12in) wide, a good size for containers or the middle of the annual border. The can create a formal look that suits porch steps and patterned beds perfectly. They show their colours and perform at their best in a position of full sun and are quite heat and drought tolerant outdoors.

Grow 'Chocolate Mint' in moist but well-drained soil, ideally in full sun, in a sheltered spot. They are very easy to start from seed and grow quickly into a well-branched, bushy plant just ideal for containers indoors or out as well as the partly to fully shaded annual bed. Insignificant whorled racemes of tubular, pale blue flowers can appear at any time of year.
Plant out after all risk of frost has passed. If growing in pots, move indoors in autumn to overwinter. Alternatively, grow as a conservatory houseplant. You will love watching the new seedlings emerge; sporting their permanent colouring from the time they are no bigger than a fingernail!

Sowing: Sow all year round or in late spring for outdoor plants
Sow all year round for pot plant . For the garden, sow 10 to 12 weeks before the last expected frost , they will then be well developed when it is time to plant them outdoors.
Sow seeds onto a layer of moistened, sterile potting soil in a shallow tray, do not cover as they need light to germinate. Cover with glass or plastic to retain moisture, until the seeds have germinated. Place in a warm (21°C/ 0°F), bright (not full sun) place.
When the seedlings are large enough to handle, transplant into individual pots. Seedlings should always be held by a leaf, never by the stem.
When pricking out coleuses note that larger and stronger plants often have poorer quality foliage. When all danger of frost is past the plants may be set out in the garden. Plant 30cm (12in) apart in rich, moist, well-drained soil

Cultivation:
Fertilise with a diluted (50% mix) liquid fertiliser, too much feeding with high nitrogen fertilisers, encourages soft growth and poorer quality foliage.
Pinch the centre stems out when the plants are 4 to 6 inches tall to induce bushier growth, and be sure to pick off the flower spikes as they form. For a bushy plant Continue to pinch out new shoots. Coleus is very durable, so you can cut your plant back severely if needed (almost back to the soil level).
Coleus should be kept at a 15-20°C (60-70°F) over winter. They will survive down to 10°C (50°F) but only if kept dry. Losses to rot and fungal diseases are high if the plants are allowed to get cold and damp.

Plant Uses:
Best in pots as house plants, or in the warmer conservatory, coleus can also be grown in containers or window boxes alongside other temporary summer planting. They can also look good bedded out with salvias, rudbeckias, gaillardias and other late-summer flowers in the red-yellow end of the spectrum in warm borders.

Other Uses:
The roots of coleus are known from ancient times, where it served as a stand in for Salvia divinorum, in shamanistic rituals. Not much research has been done on the psychoactive chemicals within the plant. The effects resemble those of psilocybin, which is found in psilocybian mushrooms.

History:
Two species were in cultivation here by the 1860s, C. verschaftelti and C. blumei, and the first coloured-leaf variety appeared at a Royal Horticultural Society show in June 1861, introduced by William Bull, a nurseryman of King's Road, Chelsea. Seven years later the RHS organised a promotional auction of new hybrids. One plant fetched 59 guineas, expensive now, but in those days was an enormous sum.
Meanwhile Bull had bred about 150 varieties, of which he was marketing the best 18, cannily timing new releases to coincide with mentions of the plant in the gardening press. The breeding and propagation of sports was so frenetic that Gardener's Chronicle of 1869 dubbed it "coleus fever". Varieties have changed little since then and we're still working with essentially Victorian material.

Nomenclature:
Several years ago, the powers that be changed the name to Solenostemon scutellarioides but in a blatant act of taxonomic defiance, we refuse to call them anything but Coleus.