Coleus is a beautiful, versatile plant that can add striking color and texture to gardens and containers. With its colorful foliage, coleus serves as an excellent companion plant to highlight other flowers, vegetables and foliage. When choosing companion plants, consider color, height, and sun exposure to create attractive, thriving combinations. Here are 10 great options for what to plant with coleus:
1. Lantana
Lantana is a perfect companion for coleus. It blooms from spring to fall in shades like yellow, orange, pink and red. The mounded shape and arching branches contrast nicely with coleus’ upright habit. Lantana grows 12-24 inches tall. Plant it with short coleus varieties like Wizard Mosaic or Ruby Ruffles. The bright lantana flowers will make the coleus colors pop. Both plants thrive with full sun exposure.
2. Impatiens
Impatiens offer lots of possibilities to complement coleus. Their flowers come in single and double forms, in colors like white, pink, red, orange, purple and bicolor blooms. Impatiens do best in partial shade to full shade. Choose shade-loving coleus varieties like Henna, Sedona or ColorBlaze Wicked Hot to pair with impatiens. The impatiens will trail over the edges of pots and hanging baskets, creating a lush look.
3. Begonias
For a shady garden bed or container, combine coleus with begonias like the classic wax begonia or the elaborate, large-flowered Dragon Wing begonia. The shiny, succulent leaves and bright blooms of begonias provide great contrast to the more prominently veined, matte and colorful coleus foliage. Try combining the upright, red-violet Wizard Jade coleus with trailing white flowering wax begonias.
4. Heliotrope
The fragrant, old-fashioned appeal of heliotrope makes it an excellent companion for coleus Its flowers bloom in shades of violet-blue to deep purple. Try combining heliotrope with a coleus that has contrasting chartreuse foliage like Wasabi or Golden Dreams, which will make the purple blooms pop Both plants thrive in full sun to partial shade exposures. Heliotrope’s mounded form, reaching 12-18 inches tall, will complement taller upright coleus varieties nicely.
5. Cordyline
For a bold, architectural look in containers, pair a colorful coleus with a cordyline like ‘Red Star’ or ‘Pink Champagne.’ Cordyline is a strappy-leafed plant that can grow 3-4 feet tall with proper care and fertilization. Underplant the cordyline’s upright structure with a trailing coleus variety like Trailing Rose, adding swaths of color and texture. Both plants thrive in full sun to partial shade and with adequate water.
6. Dusty Miller
The silvery white foliage of dusty miller makes an eye-catching contrast with the rainbow leaf colors of coleus As a companion plant, dusty miller will highlight and accentuate the coleus colors Plant them in full sun for strongest coloration. Choose an upright coleus variety like ColorBlaze Dipt in Wine and an mounding dusty miller like Silverdust to complement each other’s form. Dusty miller typically reaches 12-18 inches tall.
7. Sweet Potato Vine
For bountiful trailing texture, pair coleus with a sweet potato vine like the classic ‘Margarita’ or the burgundy-leaved ‘Blackie’ The thin, heart-shaped leaves of sweet potato vine will spill gracefully over container edges alongside coleus Sweet potato vines love heat and thrive in full sun exposures. Upright coleus varieties like Kong series create great contrasting texture with the fine, trailing foliage of sweet potato vines.
8. Ornamental Grasses
Add movement and elegance by combining coleus with ornamental grasses like purple fountain grass (Pennisetum). The fine, arching purple plumes will sway gracefully above bushy coleus varieties. Or for containers, use compact grasses like ‘Prairie Winds’ zebra grass, which reaches just 10 inches tall. Always group grasses and coleus in full sun for best color.
9. Petunias
Petunias offer season-long color and bloom profusely in both sun and shade exposures. Combine them with coleus for a high-impact display of color and texture. Try pairing trailing petunias in bold colors like ‘Supertunia Vista Silverberry’ with an upright veined coleus like Kingswood Torch. Petunias and coleus also combine beautifully in hanging baskets, with the petunias spilling over the edges.
10. Amaranthus
For exotic texture and color, match coleus with amaranthus varieties like ‘Hopi Red Dye’ or ‘Molten Fire.’ Many amaranthus feature brightly colored foliage and tall, arching flower plumes. Their unique shapes and heights contrast beautifully with coleus. Amaranthus thrives in full sun and in hot conditions, making it an ideal companion for sun-loving coleus.
With its diversity of colors, shapes and growing habits, coleus can be combined with virtually any flowering plant. Use these companion plant ideas as a starting point, considering height, form, sun exposure and bloom time. Plan out companion plants that will complement and accentuate the coleus foliage colors and textures. With the right combinations, coleus and companion plants will keep gardens, beds and containers looking great all season long.
Add coleus plants for color in shade
Every garden has its own special challenges. If shade is one of your problems, here are four hardy shade-tolerant combinations that will turn a spot with little light into a colorful, long-lasting display with coleus plants. These annual pairs can light up even the darkest corner, whether your whole yard is shaded by trees or you just want to add some color to a patio that is in the shade. (Many of the plants featured are tender perennials that we typically grow as annuals. You can change your planting plan every year to keep it interesting because annuals only grow, bloom, and die once.
All of these coleus plant combos will thrive in part to full shade. If an area gets 4 to 6 hours of light a day or all day dappled light, it is called part shade. Full shade means that a spot gets less than 4 hours of light per day.
Sow a summer sunset
There’s no reason you can’t ignite low-light situations with a color combination that seems to glow like embers. All the plants here can take either sun or shade; however, the twinspur will bloom best in full sun. If they start to fade in the heat,
cut them back
a few inches and keep them well-watered. The golden-brown sedge requires very little care. Pinch off the coleus blooms as they appear if you wish to keep the focus on the orange foliage.
It’s a tender perennial plant that is usually grown as an annual. It has soft, orange-colored leaves and spikes of blue flowers in late summer and fall. It does best in full sun to part shade and grows 24 to 40 inches tall. tall, 18 to 36 in. ‘Toffee Twist’ sedge Carex flagellifera is a tender perennial plant that is usually grown as an annual. It has thin, bronze leaves and can handle full sun to part shade. It grows 18 to 24 in. This twinspur is a tender perennial that is hardy in USDA zones 7 to 10 C. It grows tall and wide and has dainty spikes of orange pea-like flowers from late spring to late summer. It does best in full sun to part shade and is 10 to 12 inches tall. tall, trailing up to 24 in. wide; cold hardy in USDA zones 9 to 10.
Few plants provide as much bang for your buck as coleus.
Their leaf colors range from green to yellow to pink to red to white to maroon, and the leaves are all different sizes and shapes. Pair them with impatiens for a no-brainer pyrotechnic display. Impatiens are a very orderly plant and don’t require much deadheading. Their dense foliage keeps the soil moist and cool for its colorful companions.
A) Big BounceTM Lavender, Cherry, and Violet impatiens: This is a hybrid annual impatiens plant with flat, five-petaled flowers that are white, pink, lilac, and red all season. It does best in full sun to full shade and is 20 to 30 inches tall. tall, 20 to 36 in. ‘Coleosaurus’ coleus (hardy in USDA zones 10 to 11 B) is a tender perennial plant that is usually grown as an annual. It has bright dark red and lime-green leaves that grow in full sun to part shade and are 14 to 28 in. tall, 24 to 36 in. ‘Blonde Bombshell’ coleus Plectranthus hybrid Tender perennial (usually grown as an annual); golden-yellow leaves striped with lime-green and purple stems; full sun to part shade; 14 to 24 in. tall, 14 to 16 in. wide; cold hardy in USDA zones 10 to 11.
With a wide variety of colors, textures, and growing habits, coleus can be combined with almost any flowering plant to create beautiful companion plantings. Consider height, sun exposure, bloom time, and form when matching coleus with companion plants. With the right combinations, coleus will keep garden beds and containers looking their best all season long.
Fine Gardening Project Guides
I never intended to grow coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides, USDA Hardiness Zone 11). In fact, when a friend gave me my first three plants, I tried not to like them. I was already overwintering far too many tender tropicals. Who could be bothered with another one as frivolous as coleus?
Learn more: 4 Ways to Design With Coleus
Many years and several hundred seedlings, sports, and cultivars later, I admit that the cold shoulder I tried to give coleus was a hoax. In truth, it was love at first sight. What’s not to love about a genus that produces colors from gentle butter yellow to shocking magenta, with leaves that range in shape from simple ovals to frilly triangles—especially when coleus plants are so easy to grow that each pot should bear the slogan, “Just add water”? In fact, with the wide range of selections available, the most difficult part of growing coleus is choosing one.
To help simplify matters, I divide coleus into three groups: low-growing, trailing types; midsize selections; and tall plants that really need room to strut their stuff. While the size of coleus can vary depending on soil fertility, their habits work well in borders or containers. I like to use them as color echoes or as contrasts to perennials, choosing just the right shade to blend with a daylily’s bloom or to accent the dramatic golden edge of an ornamental grass. By selecting from the three different categories, I can find the right coleus plants to balance my container designs. Sometimes I plant pots with nothing but coleus, trusting their contrasting textures and colors to provide plenty of excitement.
Trailing coleus tend to have leaves that are only an inch long, and the plants typically grow 12 to 18 inches tall. They are custom-made for using in containers or for softening the front edge of a border. As basic as a black dress, 15-inch-tall ‘Red Trailing Queen’ bedecks herself from head to toe—or, rather, from leaf to stem—in regal burgundy. Her simple oval leaf shape and straightforward color complement most shades, except blue and true purple. The subtle strength of the coleus’s burgundy foliage strikes a balance with soft pinks or pale yellows as well as bright fuchsias or bold oranges.
‘Meandering Linda’, a close cousin of ‘Red Trailing Queen’, grows 16 inches tall and bears crinkly, chocolate-purple leaves banded in rich raspberry-pink, with touches of cream along the edges. It makes a scrumptious duo with anything silver, especially the elegant silver-white foliage of dusty miller (Centaurea cineraria ‘Colchester White’, Zones 7–11). ‘Meandering Linda’ appears to be a sport of ‘Red Trailing Queen’, and if planted in less than half-day sun, it sometimes reverts to its plain burgundy form. The 14-inch-tall cultivar ‘Trailing Bleeding Heart’ also appears to descend from the ‘Queen’. Its hot fuchsia-pink leaves are ringed with purple and a band of lime green. It makes a good match for my favorite pink yarrow, Achillea millefolium ‘Montrose Rose’ (Zones 3–9).
‘Trailing Salamander’, which grows 14 inches tall, offers oval, near-black leaves edged in bright lime. Its neutral color scheme makes it a choice filler for containers. Like ‘Red Trailing Queen’, it looks good with almost anything. My favorite match is with black-and-green ‘Illustris’ elephant ear (Colocasia esculenta ‘Illustris’, Zones 7–11). If a red coleus suits your color scheme, you have to try ‘Ruby Ruffles’, whose frilly, fingery foliage bears ruby centers and chartreuse edges, a color scheme many daylilies echo. Planting 12-inch-tall ‘Ruby Ruffles’ with gold-variegated pigeonberry (Duranta erecta ‘Golden Edge’, Zones 9–11) and deep red Texas sage (Salvia coccinea ‘Spanish Dancer’, Zones 9–11) also makes for a winning tropical combo.
Don’t be fooled by the textural delicacy of trailing coleus. Except for the relatively compact ‘Ruby Ruffles’, these are vigorous plants that spread 2 feet or more in a growing season and like to weave through their neighbors. Keep them away from dainty, low-growing treasures such as easily smothered mats of perennial pinks (Dianthus spp. and cvs., Zones 3–10), but don’t be afraid to combine them with larger annuals, perennials, and shrubs. Any trailing coleus also makes a great warm-season ground cover. For quick coverage, plant them 12 inches apart.
These midsize coleus are good for filling gaps
Midsize coleus, 18 to 25 inches in height, are frequently several inches wider than they are tall, and they have short internodes, which makes for bushy, dense-looking plants. Unlike trailers, these coleus tend to keep to themselves, forming tight mounds of foliage.
The simple, indigo-purple leaves of ‘Dark Star’ draw all eyes to its inky depths. Create a starkly dramatic composition by contrasting its color-saturated foliage with white flowers or silver foliage. I also like to use the 20-inch-tall ‘Dark Star’ to emphasize the “blueness” of certain blossoms, such as wild petunias (Ruellia brittoniana and cvs., Zones 7–10) or blue-violet Verbena × hybrida ‘Blue Princess’ (Zones 7–11).
‘Amazon’ is as different from ‘Dark Star’ as night is from day. Its ruffly chartreuse leaves glow like fireflies after dusk. It is, without a doubt, the best coleus of this shade that I have ever grown. Even in the scorching midsummer sun, ‘Amazon’ neither burns nor develops the russet streaks common in other chartreuse coleus. Strong stems and a full look make 24-inch-tall ‘Amazon’ a Top 10 plant, one I love to combine with green-and-gold variegated shell ginger (Alpinia zerumbet ‘Variegata’, Zones 8–11). ‘Swallowtail’ puts on a fantastic display of texture and color. Its rippled and deeply scalloped leaves are a remarkable lemon yellow, with a lettuce-green-and-wine-red river flowing through the center of each one. Four-foot-tall Salvia vanhouttei (Zones 10–11) looks magnificent dangling its burgundy blossoms over 24-inch-tall ‘Swallowtail’.
Having trialed hundreds of new coleus seedlings, I can safely say that ‘Little Twister’ is one of my best finds. I love its crimped, fingery leaves that emerge inky purple, then gradually change to predominantly yellow with lime edges and purple veins. Its 20-inch-long, deep purple stems and compact growth make ‘Little Twister’ a fabulous component of mixed containers.
If too many of your favorite flowering plants have plain, rounded leaves, contrast their simple texture with the visual equivalent of a garden explosion: 25-inch-tall ‘New Hurricane’. Picture its fiery, red-and-yellow foliage, as intricately cut as paper snowflakes, mingling with mounds of black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia spp. and cvs., Zones 3–11), simmering next to ‘Autumn Joy’ stonecrop (Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’, Zones 3–11), or backed by mounds of burgundy fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’, Zones 8–11).
How to Grow Coleus – A Step-by-Step Guide
FAQ
What is good to plant with coleus?
- Lantana.
- Impatiens.
- Begonias.
- Heliotrope.
- Cordyline (spikes)
- Dusty miller.
- Sweet potato vine.
- Ornamental grasses like purple fountain grass.
Do coleus like full sun or shade?
Coleus does best in partial to full shade, though many newer varieties can tolerate full sun. For optimum foliage color, choose a site that receives morning sun and afternoon shade.
Do coleus do better in pots or in the ground?
It works both in pots and the garden. They tolerate full sun well. I haven’t even mulched them in years. I continue breaking off stems so that they grow nice and full. We will always have one cold snap that will pretty much turn them to mush!
Can you plant impatiens and coleus together?
Coleus and Begonias thrive with Impatiens, enhancing beauty and pest resistance. Avoid Petunias and Marigolds; they compete for nutrients and attract pests.Sep 30, 2024