Growing: Annual or tender perennial. It also can be grown as a house plant.

“There are sun and shade varieties,” said Floyd Patterson of Green Thumb Nursery in Gulfport.

Coleus like plenty of water and rich, loose, well-drained soil.

Details: They come in a variety of attention-grabbing colors, including green, chartreuse, yellow, buff, salmon, orange, red, purple and brown. Varieties often have more than one color on one leaf. “The more red pigment in the leaves, the more sun tolerant the plant tends to be,” says “The Southern Living Garden Book.” AND GREEN THUMB NURSERY

INFORMATION FROM “THE SOUTHERN LIVING GARDEN BOOK”