By Molly Day
Submitted Story
October 24, 2007 07:28 pm
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Whether or not you realize it, you have grown a Plectranthus in your home or garden at some time.
The Plectranthus Genus of the mint family includes familiar names like Creeping Charlie, Vick’s Plant, Swedish Ivy, Indian Coleus, Emerald Lace, Mintleaf, Cuban oregano, Spanish thyme, Indian Borage, Mexican thyme and Mexican mint.
Harris Seed, Johnny’s Selected Seeds and Parks Seed offer seeds for growing your own but most people buy small plants or take stem end trimmings from friends' gardens. They all root easily from cuttings whether they are put in a glass of water or moist potting soil. And, since they prefer to grow when temperatures are above 50-degrees-F, now is the time to bring them inside.
Logees Tropical Plants (www.logees.com) sells P. hilliadiae Candelabra (lavender flowers) and P. hillardiae Red (rosy lavender flowers) as houseplants that they say will bloom on a north windowsill during the dead of winter.
Plectranthus are annuals, evergreen perennials, semi-succulents and shrubs from zones nine and 10 — countries such as Africa, Madagascar, Australia and the Pacific Islands.
Beautiful leaves in a wide range of colors and the fact that they are relatively carefree are the primary reasons gardeners love them.
The leaves range in color from soft gray-green to dark green with purple backs. Several have edges or are variegated in cream, white, pink and light green. Lemon Twist or (P. amboinicus variegates) beautifully combines two shades of green plus light yellow in its leaves.
Scented leaves are common to many Plectranthus. The Vick's Plant and Plectranthus caninus or Coleus canina are two widely sold examples. The first is used as an herbal cure for colds and the second is sold as a natural rabbit, deer, cat and dog repellent. “Scaredy Cat Plant,” “Dogs Gone” and “Piss-off plant” are names found in catalogs.
Some Plectranthus varieties are used as seasoning, herbs or food crops. Cuban oregano, Mexican mint, French thyme and Indian mint are all P. amboinicus. The lemon-scented leaves are brewed into tea used for stomachache, headaches and irritability. The leaves can be chewed as an herbal remedy for toothache. If an ethnic recipe calls for one of these herbs, use any of them you can find.
The naming confusion in the Plectranthus genus can lead to gardeners buying a plant that does not perform as they expected since plant tags and descriptions can be incorrect.
Swedish Ivy (Creeping Charlie) is widely grown as a houseplant. It is a Plectranthus that was brought to Sweden from Africa and named for its popularity as an indoor plant in that area.
Plectranthus verticillatus, sold as Swedish Ivy, is usually grown in hanging baskets. It has bright green leaves and trails over the sides of hanging containers.
P. oertendahlii, also sold as Swedish Ivy, has white veins on the tops of fuzzy gray-green leaves.
P. australis, sold as Swedish Ivy and Swedish Begonia, is native to Australia. It has glossy, dark green leaves.
Variegated Mintleaf, P. madagascariensis, has small white-edged leaves and small white flowers.
Two or three varieties can be grown together in the same pot if a variety with upright growth such as Cuban oregano, is pinched back to keep it compact and one of the trailing varieties is allowed to overflow the edges of the pot to create a soft effect.
The trailing varieties also can be used as semi-shade groundcovers, especially useful under trees. Try P. saccatus or P. thyrsoideus (called Flowering Bush Coleus). Nurseries have been known to tag this plant as Blue Plectranthus and even mistakenly sell it as lavender because it has blue, spiking blooms in the summer.
An evergreen native of Fiji, P. forsteri or P. coleoides, is Swedish Ivy that grows upright and then trails. “Marginatus” or Forsters Plectranthus has white margins on larger, citrus-scented leaves. “Aureus variegatus” has green, soft yellow and chartreuse toothed leaves and rarely flowers.
For purple leaves in your garden, choose P. oertendahlii (called Creeping Coleus), and P. fruiticosus.
You may also see Plectranthus sold as spur flower from the Greek words, plektron (spur) and anthos (flower).
P. argentatus is called Silver Spurflower, Silver Shield, Silvery Plectranthus and Brazilian Coleus. Grown for its silver leaves that look like Lamb's Ears and Dusty Miller, it prefers light shade and grows up to 6-feet wide. This is a water-wise selection to brighten up the area under a tree. It is said to survive to 20 degrees. (To fill a half-shade flowerbed in spring, start seeds indoors in late winter.)
P. Mona Lavender, sometimes sold as Spur Flower, is a recent hybrid from Africa (www.plantzafrica.com). Its leaves are dark green on top and eggplant purple on the bottom. It blooms profusely in half sun.
All of these look better if they are pinched back a few times each growing season, particularly if they are grown in pots. Over feeding can create soft growth that breaks easily and over watering attracts mildew and insect problems such as whitefly or aphids.
Sources include: J. L. Hudson Seeds (www.jlhudsonseeds.net). Plectranthus argentatus 100 seeds $2.50. Grows three feet with two to four inches silvery white leaves and pale blue-white flowers. Papa Geno’s in Nebraska. See: www.papagenos.com and (402) 794-0400 sells several varieties as plants plus combinations to grow together. Johnny’s Selected Seeds (www.johnnyseeds.com) has pelleted P. argentatus seeds. Park Seed, (800) 213-0076, has a foliage container collection that includes Plectranthus.
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