I recieved a clipping of a plant about 6 weeks ago and set it about 3 weeks ago in a planter. It is a very pretty leafy plant that i was told will eventually sprout tiny pink or purple flowers. The leaves have a cream/white center which then is rimmed in pink then green. it is growing astonishingly fast for me as i've never had much luck keeping plants alive LOL. Well if i left to go anywhere for more than 4 days my family either let them starve/die of thirst or they drowned them. I mean how is it possible to kill a spider plant in less than a week when it was very healthy before that...... Any way back to my mystery plant i'm including the three pictures that i took tonight of the leaves so you can better help me id this plant. It was one that my mother and aunt always called the impatiens when i was growing up but someone has since told me that it isn't but they have no idea what it really is! Thank you so much
Posting more pictures to help id that aren't as blurry as the first ones, also they are closer and show individual leaves and the way the new growth is coming up. From the fact that when the leaves first start they are pure green and develop the colouring as they grow, i am doubting it is a Coleus as well the leaves are coloured which rules out Nepeta as the leaves on all the species i have looked at are all solid green. The flowers that it will sprout look like the flower of an African Violet but smaller. They are very pale pink or pale purple (like a light lilac colour)and they have between 4-6 petals that are shaped somewhat like the petals of a wild rose. Thanks again
Hmm, looks very coleus-y to me. There are some trailing varieties with small leaves. But I'm wondering about your description of the flower. Plants in this family (Lamiacae) have tube throated snap-dragon looking flowers rather than one with separate petals in a circle like a rose. You wouldn't happen to have a pic of a flower, would you?
i haven't any pictures of the flowers as this is less then 2 months growth of 3 rootless clippings that were given to me from a seniors centre and they haven't had the main plant flower in over a year. The flowers i remember from a kid when my mom had one of these plants is what i am basing my decription of the flower on as well as what i remember this plant looking like at the center. The flower is one of the reasons that i am unsure as to the species because they do look more like a rose/violet then any coleus that i have ever seen. A friend has several different types of coleus and she has never seen this type of leaf with the rose/violet type flower either. Sorry about that i am constantly on the lookout to find one in bloom, even have requests in to people that i know have had or do have this plant to see if they have any pictures of the flower. From what i remember it blooms very rarely like once every two years and then for only about 3 weeks at a time, but that may have been because it was constantly cut back to stop it from taking over the living room! Thanks again for your help and i'll keep trying the net to find out what this beauty is!
Re: Help identifying a plant recieved as clipping - Identified as Coleus Thank you for all your help, Harry and Climber Blue were right. Someone at the center where i recieved this plant was able to identify it for me from the original and it is indeed a Coleus that has a pale blue flower when it blooms. Thanks again. Charlotte