Annuals That Go Well With Coleus

Keep it Colorful

• One of the best solutions is to combine different colors and growth forms of coleus. In garden borders, mass several plants of a single variety, with low-growing varieties in front and upright varieties in back. Alternate varieties such as lime green "Electric Lime", red "Alabama Sunset" or purple-leaved "Pat Martin." For containers, try some low-growing ducksfoot varieties that reach only 18 inches tall to spill over the edge or a small-leaved cultivar, such as green-and-purple "Thumbelina," backed by a medium-height and then a tall, upright cultivar in contrasting colors. You don't need flowers to supply the color.

Tone it Down

• Pair up single-colored coleus like deep green "Solar Flair" with low-growing annuals such as fragrant, white-flowered sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima) and white impatiens (Impatiens walleriana) for a cool effect. Sweet alyssum has limited invasiveness under some conditions. Impatiens are perennial in USDA zones 10 and 11. Frame a showy coleus cultivar like "Freckles" with "Fancy" blue fan flower (Scaevola aemula "Fancy") that will complement but not compete with the coleus. Fan flower is hardy in USDA zones 10 and 11. In the garden, intersperse dark red or chartreuse coleus as a resting spot for the eye between more colorful beds of flowering plants.

Complement Predominant Colors

• Choose a favorite coleus, perhaps the lavender-tinged, orange-leaved "Rustic Orange," and pair it with annuals that have the same growing requirements as the coleus and pick up or contrast with the leaf colors. Try impatiens in bright tones of orange or purple or wishbone flower (Torenia spp.) in shades of blue. Wishbone flower is hardy in USDA zones 10 and 11. Pick up the hot red and burgundy colors of sun-tolerant "Mississippi Summer" coleus with pink or red million bells (Callibrachoa spp.), spiky red salvia (Salvia spp.) or soft pink petunias (Petunia spp.). Million Bells is hardy in USDA zones 9 through 11, red salvia in USDA zones 10 and 11, and petunias in USDA zones 9 through 10.

Contrast Growth Forms

• Use the dramatic deep purple leaves and flower stalks of 5-feet-tall annual "Purple Majesty" millet (Pennisetum glaucum "Purple Majesty"), hardy in USDA zones 8 through 11, as a foil for colorful, upright sun-tolerant coleus cultivars. "Purple Majesty" also grows in containers. The linear leaves and oval, puffy, white seed heads of annual hare's tail grass (Lagurus ovatus) set off the broad-leaved growth form of coleus, and the seed heads can be harvested for dried flower arrangements. Hare's tail is hardy in USDA zones 10 and 11. The broad-leaved, colorful forms of annual ornamental sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) make a bold statement trailing down in front of large coleus cultivars. Ornamental sweet potato is hardy in USDA zone 11.