The Beautiful Cretonne Plant: How to Grow it at Home

The cretonne plant or Coleus blumei, never goes unnoticed. It’s perfect for growing indoors and its dazzling colors mean it’s ideal for adding color and using it to embellish your decor. Moreover, it’s easy to care for too.

Discover all the secrets behind this colorful species so that you can grow it at home. Take out your gardening tools, because it’s time to get to work!

Cretonne: an unusual beauty

Cretonne is one of those plants that doesn’t need flowers to be beautiful. This tropical plant has original-looking serrated leaves with a velvety touch and spectacular coloring. Its color varies from dark garnet to pink, to fuchsia or purple.

Although some small bluish flowers sprout in autumn and winter, the truth is that all the prominence falls on its leaves. If you want to know more about this beauty, keep reading!

Where’s the best place to put your cretonne plant?

As this is a tropical plant from Southeast Asia, it grows better indoors, where it’s protected from the sun and extreme temperatures. Cretonne plants love warm environments of around 74 degrees Fahrenheit.

One of the most important goals surrounding this plant is to find the right place where it can grow to be healthy and happy. When you hit this target, the rest of its care is simple.

Cretonne is highly sensitive to air currents, and this may come from a gentle breeze from a window or from air conditioning. Be mindful of this when choosing where to put it and also be aware that excessive heat from radiators can affect it too. So now you know where not to locate it.

Cretonne: lighting needs

Think about the brightest room in your home and reserve a special place there for your plant. Don’t forget, this plant is of tropical origin, so it needs plenty of natural light. Although, this excludes direct sunlight, so don’t put it next to a window in full sun.

Our tip: if you notice the leaves of your cretonne start to lose color and fall off, it’s because it’s lacking the light it needs. Find another space that’s brighter.

How often should you water your plant?

Always apply some caution when it comes to watering your cretonne plant because it doesn’t need excessive amounts of water. It’ll suffice to make sure that the substrate remains moist. To do this, adjust the amount of water you give it according to each season. For example, water it more frequently during summer and sparingly during the winter months.

Avoid flooding this plant, since its roots will rot. To help you, choose a suitable pot with good drainage. Terracotta pots are ideal for this.

How to avoid pests

Another advantage of having a cretonne plant is that it isn’t particularly susceptible to pests. However, you must be alert to the appearance of red mites, whiteflies, and mealybugs. These pests usually appear when the environment is too dry. To avoid this problem, try to keep the ambient humidity adequate.

How to propagate your cretonne

This is one of the easiest plants to propagate and can be done either by seed or cuttings. Take note of how to proceed in each case:

• Seed: sow seeds at the end of winter using a substrate with a mixture of peat and perlite, because this improves drainage and prevents waterlogging. Don’t forget to water abundantly and they’ll germinate in about 15 days.
• Cuttings: cut the cuttings of the plant when they measure between eight and ten centimeters, and place them in a substrate of peat and sand in equal parts. March is a good time to do this. Keep in mind that they’ll take about two weeks to root.

As you’ve learned, cretonne is, in addition to being pretty, a fast-growing plant that’s easy to care for. Add a little liquid fertilizer to the irrigation every fifteen days during the spring and summer months. You’ll see how doing this helps it to grow bigger too. 

Its beautiful, soft leaves and color are the ideal complements to give your home a striking touch. Are you ready to welcome one into your home?

Main image: Ks.mini – Wikipedia