Fleuroselect Gold Medal; Fleuroselect Novelty Award
An exciting new addition to the Fantastic Foliage™ Collection, Celosia Sol™ Gekko Green is an annual plant grown primarily for its eye-catching foliage, offering late spring through fall interest. A breeding breakthrough, Sol Gekko Green has outstanding garden performance and adds exciting color and textural dimension to garden beds and container combos. Although Sol Gekko Green blooms in small feathery plumes of tiny, densely packed flowers from late spring to late summer, its unique, bicolored foliage takes the spotlight with beautifully contrasting green and burgundy colors on spear-shaped leaves. Grown indoors, the foliage will be greener, with few burgundy highlights.
A Celosia argentea variety, commonly called celosia plumosa, feather celosia, cockscomb, feather cockscomb, silver cockscomb, or plumed cockscomb, among others, Gekko Green is a tropical plant with a fast growth rate and a low, upright, shrub-like habit. Feather celosias are excellent container plants, outdoors or indoors.
Easy, no maintenance plants, celosias grow best in a sunny location with humusy, nutrient rich, consistently moist, well-draining soil. The plants are heat and drought tolerant and deer and rabbit resistant. In fact, few pests or diseases bother celosias, and Sol Gekko Green has no downy mildew issues.
Direct sow celosia seed after the last frost as soon as the soil is warm in spring or start seeds indoors 6 to 8 weeks before the last frost, and transplant after all threat of frost has passed. Celosias have delicate root systems that must be handled with care. Transplanting should not be delayed. Holding plugs in trays too long stunts future development and may cause premature budding.
If you plan to start your seeds indoors, be sure to check out our Bio Dome Seed Starter Kit. With the Bio Dome, you can control the temperature, light, and soil mix to ensure your seeds become strong for transplant.
This seed comes as a pellet. Pelleted seeds are small seeds that have been clay-coated to make them larger and more uniform in size and shape, making them easier to handle when planting.
