Are these perennials?

mrchandler13 · Sat Oct 31, 2015 12:15 pm

What plants are these? Are these perennials? My wife and I think they are pretty and would like to do something similar around the live oaks planted in our yard. If they are not perennials, can you suggest a perennials for us to plant surrounding our life oaks?

applestar · Sat Oct 31, 2015 2:44 pm

These are coleus. They are not frost hardy and are treated as annuals where there are frost and freeze. A touch of frost is all it takes to blacken and shrivel them. -- do you have frost where you are?

They belong to a family of plants that deteriorate rapidly into senescence if allowed to bloom and go to seed, so best way to keep them going is to clip off flowerstalks.

mrchandler13 · Sat Oct 31, 2015 3:01 pm

Thank you for responding! We live in Florida and have frosts usually a couple of times a year - tops. But still, we are looking for something very hardy (and still colorful) to plant around the base of our Live Oaks - as shown with the Coleus in the photos. Any suggestions of something that is colorful year-round? We prefer a plant itself that is colorful, rather than greenery that blooms only a few times a year...

Thanks for any suggestions...

rainbowgardener · Sat Oct 31, 2015 3:35 pm

Heuchera is one good choice for hardy perennial with colorful foliage. Comes in lots of different colors and variegations:

That's all heucheras of different varieties

Hostas are the traditional under the tree plant. Very shade tolerant. They don't come in as big a range of colors, but have foliage in a range of golds, greens, blues, many with white variegations. They also come in a whole range of sizes from tiny to very large leaves: