humidty at 30% is not enough ...

first... they root like the devil ... take a few 3 inch cuttings ... and root them ... i would skip the glass of water.. and use a small pot.. with some dampened media ... stick in 3 pieces.. ond cover it with a baggie ... in a week ... i would take off the bag and gently pull on one.. if there is resistence.. it has roots... if it comes right out ... stick it back in.. and put the bag back on ...

after they have roots... i would move them to independant pots ... and cut the top of a baggie to give some humidity .. but to allow some to get out.. the start hardening the plant off to less humidity ...

by this time.. depending where you are.. they will be getting reday to go outside ... or your windows will be open.. and they will be getting the 50% or higher humidity they need ...

and when they are rooted in a week or two ... throw the ugly one out ...

frankly .... they are NOT houseplants ... BUT!!!! .. the fact that you got it this far ... is great ...

but it is much easier to start a new piece.. that to rehab the oldster ... IMHO

ken

Ken, thanks for your advice! So, the humidity thing was important. Being a tropical plant, this makes a lot of sense.

Linus, coleus is pretty easy to grow inside in most cases. It used to be very popular as a houseplant, falling out of favor as the market introduced more and more tropicals with colorful foliage.

I suggest that other factors are to blame....overgrown root system, poor quality potting medium, insufficient or excess watering are all possibilities. As easy as they are to grow, they can be tempermental about watering.

Was your plant grown in its own container from the beginning or transplanted prior to being brought inside? If the latter, the plants may have more problems adjusting.

I grow coleus every year for my back patio and screened porch areas. I almost always combine them with other plants in large containers. If I'm especially crazy about a variety, and it's not protected by a plant patent, I'll take several cuttings in the summer, and root them in a very porous potting mix. I've actually never tented a pot of cuttings. If you prepare them properly by removing most of the leaves from short 4" cuttings, they root rapidly with little fuss or muss.

Fill the pots with the potting medium and water it thoroughly. Use a sharpened pencil to pre-drill the holes, drop in your prepared cuttings which must include at least one node, and water again to force the particles of the mix to fill in around the cuttings.

Avoid poking and tamping with your fingers as that can remove the oxygen filled pore spaces.

let me point out.. that rhizs z7 furnace... if she has one.. most likely runs about 8 hours less a day.. than my forced air furnace in MI .. in dec/jan/feb

when the furnace runs like that ... keeping humidity high enough.. for many plants.. is very hard ... its not that they die.. its just that.. by the end of winter furnace season.. they look like heck ... as i am thinking yours does .. a pic sure would help ...

in 40 odds years of gardening.. i cant think of anyone in MI .. IN MY EXPERIENCE ... that grows coleus as a houseplant ... i did only once.. and threw out out the backdoor.. sometime in later feb ... it wasnt worth 5 dolars in media.. pots.. etc.. to save a plant i could buy in spring for a buck .. eh???

all variables are important ... humidity is just one of them ...

you ought to add a big city name.. and zone to your posts.. so you get info.. more specific to where you are ... as you can see.. with this plant... where you are might matter ...

ken

Coleus are annuals. Their life cycle is a year. To maintain a coleus for a longer period, one must root fresh cuttings to starta new plants. then repeat. See this: Coleus Care

Technically, coleus (Solenostemon scutellaroid) is a tender perennial that is usually treated as an annual. In tropical locations, where the roots don't die, they can live for quite some time.

Some of our favorite 'annuals' are honest-to-goodness perennials, able to be inexpensively mass produced by seed or cuttings. Thus, it's easier to think of them as disposable.

Ken, I was born and raised in central NYS and even lived in Michigan for about three years. One reason that I am so fond of coleus and familiar with it being used as a houseplant is because Dad would always propagate a potful every summer for my mother, who loved the colorful foliage. She managed to keep it looking just fine all throughout the winter.

I've grown them wherever I lived. Including Coldwater, Michigan. It takes a knack, perhaps, but no special misting, tenting, or other extra fuss.

But if it's stressed, it will decline.