On Tue, 24 Feb 2004 10:45:25 -0500, Hal opined:

I noticed some coleus in a hospital flower bed in the late summer last
year and they weren't seeding and I couldn't see signs of trimming.
Are there varieties that don't need as much dead heading, and what
should I ask for?

This is not dogma, but in many public gardens or commercial gardens, plants are
swapped out several times during the growing season. I have not grown any
coleus which didn't require pinching the flowers. However, I found the dark
foliaged coleus in the Wizard series to be less of a problem. On the other
hand, in the south, these bolt rapidly. So, there is no hard true answer.
There is a very deep cultivar called 'Magma' and it may be in the Molten Lava
series, but I don't exactly remember.