Hi Shelli. Are you wanting to get 10 new plants off of each coleus plant you overwinter?

I'll describe to you what I do with mine.

Tips cuttings are taken from my plants in mid August, we haven't had a killing frost yet, but the temps are cool in the morning (+2C) and I find I can get rot waiting for the cuttings to root if I take them when the mornings get that cool. I root in clean water, by the 7th day I see root nubs, by the 10th I plant one cutting per 4" pot, in potting soil generously mixed with perlite. Bright sunless spot for a couple of days for it to adjust, then in a sunny window for the rest of winter. It'll grow like gangbusters until about the end of November, by then we are only receiving @8 hours of (weak) sunshine per day and the plant may only be getting one hour in the window it's at. I try to keep dryer. Then at the end of January, beginning of February I notice the sun is getting brighter, the days are lengthening, and all my plants (house and outdoor cuttings) are usually starting to perk up with respects to new growth. I've started my summer cuttings at this time only to regret it, since our planting out time is last week of May, and 3+ months of growing indoors seems to create way too large of a plant to harden off successfully, plus I run out of room! I take the cuttings I need near the end of March (gives me 8 full weeks) and by that time my coleus can give me at least 6 good cuttings). Oh, that end of February time, I will remove from his little 4" pot, rough up the root ball some and place in a 6", and he will get substantially larger than when I've left it limping along in the 4". Plus, if you pinch off the growing tip (make a new plant there - and you'll get a couple of cuttings at end of March again) you will get more side branching (more plants).

I don't know how large your cuttings are (I make mine small) but I think placing one in a 6" pot to start is too big, if you place several some may crowd out others and stunt their growth.

Hope this helps.

I love coleus. For me, disease free, NEVER any bugs on this plant, not even aphids.

~ kioni ~

Hi Shelli-
I'm just north of you in NH and have started to take cuttings just recently. I've got a 20 gallon tote just filled to capacity with babies! I will def need to take the rest of them tonight since we're supposed to get frost.
I do the same as kioni- root them in clean water (changing it every couple of days), then transfer to a pot of some sort, and windowsill (south-facing) for the rest of the winter.
Mine are usually kept in some form of "living condition" all winter (watered when needed), and I don't usually lose too many, but they certainly look pretty pathetic til spring. Once they are set back out though, they go like gangbusters!
My cuttings that I took this year are about 6" or more...previously I've cut them too small, but they still survive just fine. I've rooted sticks before and they do fine.
I also keep a pile of them in my office for the winter.
I've noticed that putting more than one cutting in a pot usually causes them to not play too well together, so I keep it down to one per pot (oh, I have to interject here that I do have a Perilla in a 16oz plastic cup that is doing just fine).

Another silly tip that I've discovered: Some coleus are obviously easier to root than others. And some I've found actually do better in a horizontal position while rooting. Not sure why. So I keep a shallow Gladware leftover container handy for those that don't like being upright. I dunno, but it seems to work for some.

mmqchdygg: when you say sometimes you lay your cuttings flat to root, they don't want to be vertical, is that because of the bottom end of the cutting curling up, so far that the cut tip will reach out of the water? Because some cuttings will do that for me, others won't, and they can be off the same variety (different plant, same variety, just because I don't know why).

I use old contact lenses cleaning solution vials (smaller than the vials 35mm camera film comes in) to root my little pieces, one cutting per vial (occasionally one will rot? Peter's Wonder did for me in the spring, yet this fall the cutting rooted fine).

I find since they get big soon enough, I make my cut below the 3rd or 4th node (depending on the spacing), and my goal is to have little plants for as long as possible, so that when I do have to pinch, I can make new plants for outside.

Thank you for the advice....I'll plant one cutting per pot. This was my first season growing coleus and the one I purchased was Big Red Judy. Gorgeous plant, got about 3' tall. I'm so smitten with the plant that I want to create (hopefully) atleast 10 new plants to put in the garden next spring! I'll probably look around at different varieties also since they seem to come in all sorts of beautiful color combos.

It's funny...the growing season is just wrapping up here and I'm already planning for spring :)

Shelli-I just google Big Red Judy, and I will be on the lookout for that one! One year I had Sedona (? might have had another word within that name - the colour was similar to Texas Parking Lot or maybe Copper Penny) but it was near solid bronze, and looked so striking with the green foliage of other plants. I don't blame you for wanting to keep over. My paranoia aside, I would be taking lots of tip cuttings, and the first 2 or 3 that root the fastest (thus the better growers in my opinion) would get placed into pots. One year my Skyfire was growing real good, then got all limpy. I gave it more water, still limpy. I could only deduce that I'd overwatered ( back then the soil could have been too dense) and I quickly lopped off some cuttings and put in water, within a couple of hours they'd firmed up how they should and once rooted I kept on going.

I usually keep over a coleus that I did not come across in every store, just in case the variety doesn't get carried the next year. And now, with how the growers keep coming out with new shades and variations, I'm quite happy to stick with what I know I like, because having to choose from the new ones would be a killer (I don't have that many pots to grow them in!).

One BIG reason (besides beauty of colour and that around here they are completely insect and mildew free AND they are so danged easy to overwinter for 8-9 months in the home) is that they are beautiful, AND the area around them stays tidy. I love geraniums, impatiens, wax begonias and many more, but they need more maintenance than coleus.

What did you plant "Judy" with, or was she alone?

As for planning for spring, once I've got everything planted out I find I'm already making plans for different colour schemes/combos for the next spring!

Kioni-

I planted Big Red Judy in the shade garden (though the tag said sun/part shade. It did wonderfully and looked beautiful among hostas, astilbe. I'll be planting several more in the same area next year.. I also will be on the lookout for some multicolor red/chartreuse to really make the area pop!