Audrey - be sure to let MIP build up well before you prune the laterals back to about 3 - leaves/eyes. That will produce new blooming laterals. It can become a huge rose - but I like to train it more - twisting the long canes around the about 24 inch in diameter metal support. It makes it produce many more blooming laterals - traning it this way. Growing naturally it will produce a big mound and it can send out 10 feet canes - first year these will only bloom at the tips - but next they will produce many blooming laterals/sideshoots. This is why I think that growing this rose with some kind of support - like training the long shoots horizontally on a trellis/fence/arbor produces the best results. Most freestanding MIPs I have seen look messy - huge thorny canes whipping all over - or the flowers are so high up that we can't smell them. The picture is 2 year old (plant 5 year old) and it only had a little mildew/very little rust at the time(I just sprayed and removed the infected leaves - and the summer pruning together with spraying kept it pretty clean. This year it has more rust and after picking the infected leaves/spraying it has lost about 20-25 percent of the leaves but looks pretty good now. Later in the season it also gets a little blackspot - but mildew and rust are worst here. So it is not an easy rose - but for those who are willing to put up with this work/care/spraying - they can choose if they think it is worth it. I love ultra fragrant roses - and will not live without it. I hope Nadia is up for a challenge. If all roses were this much work - I would not have time to grow many.

WEll here is my suggestion....I use to have the same problem ...Then I spoke to a women who lives in China who knows more than any of us about these plants and she said never lets a clivia go completely dry. U give less water but enough for the roots to drink something. If you let them go with out water for that long then resume watering on dehydrated roots..You bring on root wrot. Yellowing leaves is a sign of poor watering habits nad lack of water or root rot.They are usually a tough plant to kill. But, once the roots start to rot, watch out. Take your plant and see what the root system looks like. If they are wrinkled up, black, or moushy, or hollow, YOu have killed the roots by withholding water to long. Just litely water when they are dorment, when you take them out of dormancy, Then soak the plant goodand fertilize. Give them a good drink and let dry out between waterings. They also have to have some light.Not complete darkness like the way we treat bulbs. I cut my lites down to about 6 hours by Febraury with florescent bulbs,and then an extra hour of lite a day by the time spring comes on timers of course. They need sum lite. Just a few hours of it... During dormancy...Hope this helps. And yes I get beautiful flowers.

Linus, coleus is pretty easy to grow inside in most cases. It used to be very popular as a houseplant, falling out of favor as the market introduced more and more tropicals with colorful foliage. I suggest that other factors are to blame....overgrown root system, poor quality potting medium, insufficient or excess watering are all possibilities. As easy as they are to grow, they can be tempermental about watering. Was your plant grown in its own container from the beginning or transplanted prior to being brought inside? If the latter, the plants may have more problems adjusting. I grow coleus every year for my back patio and screened porch areas. I almost always combine them with other plants in large containers. If I'm especially crazy about a variety, and it's not protected by a plant patent, I'll take several cuttings in the summer, and root them in a very porous potting mix. I've actually never tented a pot of cuttings. If you prepare them properly by removing most of the leaves from short 4" cuttings, they root rapidly with little fuss or muss. Fill the pots with the potting medium and water it thoroughly. Use a sharpened pencil to pre-drill the holes, drop in your prepared cuttings which must include at least one node, and water again to force the particles of the mix to fill in around the cuttings. Avoid poking and tamping with your fingers as that can remove the oxygen filled pore spaces.

I am in North Texas, and it is quite common for my brugs to drop leaves, especially when it heats up as much as it has for the past week or so. I either pull them off or let them drop off as the plant does not need to try to support an unhealthy leaf. I would not worry about it, really think you do not have a major problem. Maybe others in your area will chime in as to the condition of their brugs.