Another Gardening Rule to Break!

“You should remove any flowers that form on coleus because you are growing it for its foliage and the flowers aren’t all that attractive.”

Thus it is written, and thus you, fellow gardener, shall do it. Don’t let those coleus flowers form! Cut them off! Nip them literally in the bud! It has been decreed!

If you like to follow all the gardening rules, you may now stop reading at this point.

Otherwise, continue to read about breaking rules….

And yet, I did not remove the flowers from the coleus plants on the front porch.

I broke the rule.

I defied the decree!

Why?

Because every time I got close to those flowers with clippers in hand ready to remove them, a bee came along to sip their nectar.

I don’t care who you are. You, too, would find it hard to remove a nectar source while a bee or any other pollinator was nectaring from it.

Yes, yes, of course, absolutely, all over the place there are other flowers for these bees. Cutting off these coleus flowers isn’t going to make-or-break them.

But admit it. You would absolutely do as I did and not follow that rule if you saw bees on those flowers.

By the way, this particular coleus arrived earlier in the spring as two trial plants labeled as Premium Sun Coral Candy coleus. One looked like Premium Sun Coral Candy and the other had dark, almost brown leaves. I potted them up together in a container that I now know is too small for the both of them. I need to water them twice a day to keep them from wilting.

But as you can see they are both full of flowers.

Elsewhere in the garden, the Premium Sun Coral Candy coleus I grew from seeds and planted in an old wheelbarrow in a shady spot in back have yet to produce the first flower. This lack of flowers is “as advertised.” Late flowering is noted as a feature of this particular coleus variety beause really, we are growing coleus for its foliage.

So no flowers on these for now. And thus no bees on it either. Kind of sad, really. At this point, I wish it had some flowers so I could break the rule about cutting them off.

It would give both me, and the bees, great pleasure!