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If you attended this year’s CAST25, you might have seen me dressed as a chef complete with a chef’s hat and apron greeting visitors to PanAmerican Seed’s “Coleus Kitchen!”

We showcased our Coleus Premium Sun Collection at the 2025 California Spring Trials in Santa Paula, California, United States. You couldn’t miss our amazing “spice rack of coleus” display, which featured the newest coleus from PanAmerican Seed, Sweet Paprika™.

All of the Premium Sun Coleus varieties were displayed in huge spice jars with coordinating colours and labels. Alongside this life-sized spice rack were coleus trio containers and mixes with other items such as Solarscape® Interspecific Impatiens, as well as a giant version of the Premium Sun Coleus Organisational Chart. This organisational chart is designed to help growers match the vigor and timing of their seed coleus to their growing and market needs.

Premium Sun Coleus Organisational Chart

All 11 of our Premium Sun Coleus varieties can handle both sun and shade, bring premium garden performance and are later to flower than traditional seed coleus. The newest member of the collection is Sweet Paprika, which gives us that rich velvety red color on a medium-mounded plant habit. This variety also happens to be the latest to flower in our entire collection.

While there are a lot of neat novelties in the world of coleus, we have found that there are more sales in core colours like red and lime. We are excited to now be able to offer a premium red coleus from seed to complement red vegetative coleus varieties on the market such as Redhead (Volcanica series), Ruby Slippers (Ignite series), and Beale Street (Main Street series). Premium Sun Coleus truly is a collection (as opposed to a series) because there is some variability amongst the varieties.

We have documented the differences in these varieties and organised them in a chart based on vigor, habit and flower timing. This chart is available as a pdf and can also be found on our website as a Sell Sheet – Premium Sun Coleus Collection.

More Tools for Grower Success

We have several tools within our Inspired Solutions programs to help growers and consumers be successful with our varieties. The Premium Sun Coleus collection fits within our Fantastic Foliage programs where it can be programmed and messaged along with other foliage items such as Ornamental Millet, Dichondra, Asparagus, etc. These Coleus also fit within the Pro Landscape Program meaning that we deem them appropriate for professional landscapers based on their speed to fill beds, low maintenance, and season-long colour.

PanAmerican Seed continues to spice up gardens with our flavour and textures of a diverse variety of coleus. As we offer a “full pantry” of seed coleus varieties with classic staples of our Kong®, Kong Jr.™, and Wizard® Coleus series, our Premium Sun Coleus collection is where we are currently focusing most of our development efforts. Stay tuned, more breeding is coming to growers in this Premium Sun Coleus program!