If you cultivate some Coleus species as ornamental plants, knowing whether rabbits do eat them or not is a concern. Do they eat them or not?
Coleus is a genus name for annual shrubs, herbs, and sometimes succulents in the family Lamiaceae (mint, sage, or deadnettle family), which has popular herbs like basil, sage, rosemary, oregano, thyme, hyssop, among others.
Besides being cultivated as ornamental plants due to their brightly colored leaves, some with geometrical pink to red splotches, some varieties have edible tuberous roots, i.e., their root tubers serve as food. Species with edible tubers include C. otundifolius, C.esculentus, and C. maculosus subsp. edulis.
Coleus is not rabbit resistant save for C. canina, which deters rabbits. The rest of the Coleus species do attract rabbits, and bunnies will eat them.
Why do they attract wild bunnies, hares, or cottontails? The answer is simple. They provide these animals with food (they eat their foliage) and an overnight hiding place being a bedding plant.
Even potted Coleus will still attract rabbits due to their lowly handing foliage that will provide a perfect hiding place and food.
Unless you have the rabbit resistant species, you need to protect these hardy zone 10 plants that love the bright area but not direct full sun (bright shade to partial sunlight). Some strategies for protecting them include the following:
- Use repellents such as Liquid Fence Deer & Rabbit Repellent Concentrate or deterrents like Orbit 62100 Yard Enforcer Motion-Activated Sprinkler with Day & Night Detection Modes and many others available in the market.
- Modify the environment by getting rid of anything that will attract rabbits to your garden, flowerbeds, or landscaping plants. This strategy will include clearing nearby bushes.
- Exclusion with a barrier fence, electric fence, tree guards, or pop up fences.
- Have rabbit repellent plants such as onions, leeks, garlic, oregano, lavenders, or intercropping with ornamental plants like lantanas and geraniums salvias, and so on that bunnies don’t like.
- Use homemade rabbit repellents like cayenne pepper sprays.
- Having a dog
- Giving them an alternative place to graze
Besides these strategies, you can consider going for alternative ornamental plants that rabbits don’t like, such as pot marigold, wax begonias, lantana, sweet alyssums, snapdragon, strawflower, and many others.