Colorblaze Rediculous Coleus Late-Season Downturn - September 2026

They can't all be 'gardening wins', can they?

Yesterday, I posted about how lovely the Talavera Moondust Coleus was doing in the corner patio bed in our backyard.  And, about a week ago, I posted an update on the Wizard Sun Red Velvet Coleus in our front yard Island Bed.  And remarked how its compact growing habit has been a nice surprise.  

At the end of that post, I declared myself a Coleus fan.  

Looking back at the [coleus] archives here on my [garden diary], I see a turning point where I began to plant coleus in mass plantings as a bedding plant.  And that's changed the way I use coleus.  Prior to 2024, I was tucking them into containers.  Shade containers, mostly.  

But, once I began to 'get to know' coleus and learned about the difference between sun and shade-tolerant varieties, I started to experiment a little bit more.  

That started with a Flame Thrower Coleus that I planted in a larger container and put on our back stoop in 2025.  I planted it as a monoculture, it thrived by getting morning shade, mid-day sun and evening shade.  I really liked the dark foliage contrast to the other things on the stoop in containers.

This year, I tried to repeat that success.  I grabbed a Colorblaze Rediculous Coleus in a quart container.  And, planted it up in the same pot that held the Flame Thrower Habanero Coleus from last season.  

May, June, July and even August:  it grew and grew.  And was doing so well.

Then, something happened.  And, the Colorblaze Rediculous Coleus changed. 

And, now it looks like this - see below for a current photo.  Sad and limp.  And, seemingly a different set of color on the foliage than it had earlier in the season.  Lots of gold, along with purple.

What happened?  I'm not sure.  

Did it become root bound?  Did it begin to revert back to whatever one of its parents is?  I'm not sure.

As this began to deteriorate, I wondered if the soil conditions were weak or if it was drying out quickly, so I top-dressed the pot with some house-made compost.  Hoping that the compost would both hold in the moisture a little bit and feed the plant.  

That seemed to have no impact.  

I moved it to full shade.  Thinking that the Sun was the problem.  

No improvement.  

At this point, I'm going to declare this one almost lost.  

Something to learn from, I suppose.  

Below are the tags from when I planted it - so I can reference them for future plant choices.  I won't be buying Colorblaze coleus next year.  

The upside of this situation is that with Fall arriving soon, that gives me an opportunity to replant the container with something for Autumn.  Cabbages?  Kales? Celosia?   I'll see what I come across, but I know I won't be doing Mums in here.