mrchandler13
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Are these perennials?

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?
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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

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
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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...

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

Image

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:

Image



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