Coleus (also known as painted nettle) plants are a fantastic addition to any home with their beautiful and vibrant colored foliage.
As it’s possible to find coleus plants with plenty of different colors, such as green, white, yellow, pink, red, maroon, and purple, they can easily fit any environment.
Alongside being a beautiful plant, coleus is extremely easy to care for as it’s not too demanding in terms of the conditions it requires to stay healthy and grow.
From what we have seen, the primary question about coleus care is whether a coleus plant prefers sun or shade, which is our topic today.
So, do coleus plants prefer sun or shade?
Coleus plants require a mixture of sun and shade to grow optimally and develop colorful foliage.
A few hours of sunlight in the morning followed by partial shade in the afternoon produces the best results for your coleus to grow and produce colorful leaves.
As these preferences may slightly change between different climates and coleus varieties, let’s take a deeper look into the light exposure preferences of coleus to ensure that you can provide the optimal conditions for your plant.
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Do Coleus Plants Prefer Sun or Shade?
Coleus plants have flexible light exposure requirements, which allows them to live under full sun, full shade, and anything in between.
On the other hand, providing the conditions they prefer, depending on both on the climate and their variety will yield the best results for growth and color.
First, let’s talk about the effects of climate.
As a rule of thumb, your coleus will require more sunlight if you live in an area with a cool climate, whereas if the region you are living in is dry and hot, you will have to provide more shade.
Since exposure to the sun warms the plant up, increasing the amount of sunlight in a cool climate serves as a way to keep the temperature of your coleus balanced.
On the other hand, as dry and hot weather can bring the temperature of your coleus to levels that are too high, it will appreciate spending prolonged periods in the shade to cool down.
Now that we have discussed the effects of climate – let’s move on to how the variety of your coleus can affect its light exposure preference.
The consensus is that cultivars of coleus prefer extended periods of exposure to sunlight to grow optimally and produce the most vibrant colors possible. On the other hand, coleus variants that grow in the wild do better with higher amounts of shade.
As the majority of the coleus plants that plant shops sell are cultivars, you usually can’t go wrong by allowing your plant to receive a good amount of sun in the morning and letting it stay in partial shade during the afternoon.
How Many Hours of Sun Do Coleus Need?
While the amount of sun a coleus plant prefers depends on the variety and the climate, it’s best not to expose them to sunlight for too long as too much sun can cause adverse effects, whereas too much shade won’t.
We recommend letting your coleus plant receive between 5 to 6 hours of sunlight in the morning and moving it to an area with partial or full shade during the afternoons.
That being said, depending on how your plant reacts, you can experiment with different sun-shade balances by modifying the periods in small increments and find what works best for your coleus.
What Is the Best Place for Your Coleus?
As a coleus plant requires a mixture of sunlight and partial shade for optimal growth, you will need to find a place that satisfies both conditions throughout the day.
The best place for your coleus is an East-facing window, followed by a West-facing window.
As the sun rises in the East, East-facing windows get bright, indirect sunlight in the morning, and shade after midday. As these are the perfect conditions for a coleus plant, your priority should be an East-facing window.
A West-facing window is the next best thing as it also gets a mixture of sunlight and shade, but in reverse order compared to an East-facing one.
As a West-facing window can get warmer than an East-facing one due to the ambient temperature, it’s a good idea to see how your plant reacts to it and make changes if necessary.
Which Coleus Is Good for Full Sun?
As we have mentioned earlier, some coleus variants prefer longer periods of sunlight exposure than others.
If you live in an area where sunlight is abundant, going with a coleus variant that does well in full sun will definitely be a better option.
Here are a few coleus variants that do well in full sun.
- Redhead coleus
- Wasabi coleus
- Copper Glow coleus
- Gnash Rambler coleus
- Kiwi Fruit coleus
- Kiwi Fern coleus
- Saturn coleus
Which Coleus Is Best for Shade?
Just as it’s possible to find coleus variants that do well in the sun, it’s also possible to find ones that do better in the shade.
Without further ado, let’s get down to the list.
- Lava Flow coleus
- Krakatoa coleus
- Limelight coleus
- Dark Star coleus
- Fishnet coleus
If you live in a region where the climate isn’t too warm, you should go with one of these coleus variants to provide the best possible conditions for your plant.
Wrapping Up
Coleus plants are a fine addition to any houseplant enthusiast’s collection with their beautiful and colorful foliage, especially considering that it’s possible to choose between so many different colors.
Throw in the fact that a coleus plant can thrive in all light conditions ranging from full sun to full shade, and we have a plant that is a complete winner.
While providing extended amounts of sunlight for a plant can be difficult in certain climates, meeting the light preferences of a coleus plant is quite simple due to it being a mixture of morning sun and afternoon shade.
If you have been on the lookout for a new houseplant lately, a coleus plant may be the one you need!