red foliage plant what is it

[elephant1234]

i am looking after a cerise red plant with purple / burgundy leaves with vivid cerise pink veins and stalk can anyone help it`s looking a bit droopy but has had plenty of water and feed it`s about 18 inches tall.

[~Wingnut~]

Is it a coleus plant?

http://www.glasshouseworks.com/images/newcoleu .jpg

[hammerman]

A few more details needed i'm afraid. Is this a garden plant or house/conservatory plants. How big and what shape are the leaves....is the stem kind of square rather then round ???

It could be a coleus or irisene. If the plant's in the sun, it could be suffering from sun-flag and will be fine by this evening. I presume that the plant is not dry !!! despite the amount of water you give it. make sure the pot is light (by picking it up) when you water it and give it a good soaking.....sometimes by standing the roots in a bucket of water for an hour or so.

Good luck

[Makinamess]

Might it be a Croton ?

Here's a picture of one:-

http://zzzone.net/photo/croton.jpg

These plants like to be sprayed with water regularly (ie they love a high humidity atmosphere).

Can you take a pic and let us see it ?

[~Wingnut~]

...or a maranta?

http://www.madlantern.com/plants/manito/images /greenhouse/maranta.jpg

[elephant1234]

it`s not coleues plant or irisene just had a look ,the plant has no green on it at all the leaves are about 3" long and 2" wide with rounded stem i think it is a house plant the dying leaves turn greenish

[TheMan]

Hello, I have an Iresine plant (although a nursery near me calls it something else) and until this came up I couldnt even remember that! It is the Bloodleaf type with wine red leaves and is exactly as you describe elephant. The only difference I dont think the leaves go green when they die but a paler colour red.

Having said that it does enjoy a sunny spot, but away from the south-facing window the colours will fade, and it will be straggly and lank. As hammerman pointed out it does sometimes need a good soak to bring it back to life.

Terrific plant if it is that, and so easy to take cuttings and root in some water. Apparently they are popular in the US but rarer here. Unless I take some more cuttings and spread a little happiness to some others!

Hope you find out which it is. Another thing is they will grow to about 2 ft, and the wine red leaves are 3 ins long if you keep it bushy and nip out stragglers.

[horty]

Well whatever your plant is, tip it out of the pot and see if with the best of intentions, you have over watered it, I suspect this is what has happened. If you see that it is too wet, leave the pot off (as long as the rootball is stable) and let it dry out, you may loose some leaves but might be in time to save the plant. Of course if it is too dry do the opposite, but it sounds as if it is drowning to me. Hope this helps, good luck, if all else fails, buy another one for whoever! H.

[Thunderbird+]

I wonder if its a Canna liiy you have, the variety 'Tropicana' sounds likely, does it have large stripey leaves shaped like a rubber plants ?
If it is a canna plenty of sun and plenty of water is needed for it to grow well. All the Best T bird+