Wizard Sun Velvet Red Coleus Planted in Island Bed - May 2026

One of the [garden wins] that I hung on the scoreboard last year was planting coleus as a bedding plant in the garden.  Both in the front yard (island bed) and in the back (corner patio bed).  Last year, I planted twelve Versa Gold Coleus as bedding annuals up front in the Island bed and they filled-in and put on a great foliage show all season.  I was pretty good about dead-heading them and pinching off the flowers to keep the growth focused on the foliage. 

I put on my 2026 to-do list to use more annuals (again) including coleus and talked about repetition via annuals.  More on that soon.  

But, for the Island bed, I picked up sixteen (16) small Wizard Red Velvet Red Coleus plants:

Wizard Red Sun Coleus is described by Ball Seed as:

Compact, mid-sized foliage plant with upright habit is ideal for mixed containers, planters, baskets and landscapes. Easy-care plants are late flowering, extending their landscape value.

These are likely to be a bit smaller than last year, but the part that I really like is that they are 'late flowering' - meaning they'll focus on their foliage for a long bit of the growing season.  

I took all sixteen and planted them into the bed in an alternating pattern right in front of the three Seslarias (I think that's what they are?) and the Medusa Alliums (and Garden Ghost Artemesia).  

Below are a couple of photos showing the 16 plugs planted.  They're very small to start.  

I left room in front of them for more annuals - going to match the Vinca that I'm putting into the front porch bed to bring some of that much desired repetition to help improve garden legibility.