Main Street Coleus Add Color to Containers and Shade

Virtues: Main Street coleus are a series of coleus varieties named for famous avenues. Every variety grows well in sun or shade and flowers late (allowing the leaves and habit to remain at their best). They also have the same vigor as one another, making it easy to grow more than one variety in a container together.

Common name: Main Street coleus series; varieties include ‘Dutch Mill Drive’, ‘Granville Street’, ‘River Walk’, ‘Rodeo Drive’, ‘Sunset Boulevard’, ‘Wall Street’, ‘Broadway’, ‘Michigan Avenue’, ‘Fifth Avenue’, ‘Abbey Road’, ‘Broad Street’ and more.

Botanical name:Plectranthus scutellarioides (syn. Solenostemon scutellarioides) Main Street series

Exposure: Sun or shade

Season: Summer into fall, for foliage

Foliage: Each Main Street coleus variety boasts different colored/patterned foliage. A few highlights:
‘Broadway’: Red-purple leaves with golden margins
‘Sunset Boulevard’: Pale pink leaves with a very wide golden tan margin
‘Wall Street’: Solid deep copper
‘Michigan Avenue’: Dark red leaves splattered and edged with green
‘Fifth Avenue’: Hot pink centers framed in purple with a green margin
‘Rodeo Drive’: Lime green with purple veining and edges
‘River Walk’: Bright mottled yellow and green

Habit: All Main Street coleus have an upright habit and reach 24 inches tall and wide.

How to grow Main Street coleus: Site in fertile soil with good drainage. Provide even moisture. Coleus is not drought tolerant, though it will bounce back from a brief lapse in watering. Main Street coleus varieties performed equally well in sun and shade and in the ground and in containers in Kansas State University's Prairie Star Flowers trials.

Image courtesy of Prairie Star Flowers