COREOPSIS
I think of coreopsis as a high summer flower. Its bright yellow, daisy-shaped blooms seem most appropriate on hot sunny days when the petals look like golden rays. Since it is still only late spring, I was surprised last week when my Coreopsis grandiflora or large-flowered coreopsis suffered a burst of early exuberance and started to put out blossoms. This was even more remarkable given the fact that there has been enough rain in the last eight weeks to justify thoughts of ark building.
Maybe that’s also why I found the coreopsis so welcome–the plant captured the little available sunshine and held it in its flower petals. I picked several stems for an indoor arrangement. Coreopsis has a habit of lasting in a vase, even if it has been drenched in several rainstorms prior to its arrival in the house.
Coreopsis is sometimes known as “tickseed”, which sounds as if the plants carry disease. However, the real explanation is more prosaic and less threatening. The Latin name “coreopsis” comes from a Greek word, “koris”, meaning bug or insect. Martin Rix, writing in The Botanical Garden, says that this “bug” reference may stem from the fact that the seed capsules or achenes are round and bug-like. That may, in turn, have led to the common name.
Whatever you call the plant, the coreopsis market has exploded in recent years, with the introduction of many new cultivars. The sun-loving genus is native to the New World, and flourishes in the wild in the southern United States, parts of Mexico and sometimes in South America. As with some other New World plants, like asters and goldenrod, coreopsis has caught the fancy of European plant breeders. American hybridizers have gotten in on the act as well.
I am notoriously bad about plant labeling in my collector’s garden, but I think my precocious beauty is ‘Early Sunrise’, a semi-double variety with twenty-inch stems. Its sumptuous petals are golden yellow with deeper yellow centers. Normally ‘Early Sunrise’ has no trouble standing erect, but right now, having had a daily dousing for the past week, the stems are flopping over into the neighboring path.
My garden is also home to three other coreopsis varieties, all of them low growers. The most vigorous is ‘Zagreb’, a cultivar of Coreopsis verticillata or threadleaf coreopsis. The verticillatas have fine, almost fern-like foliage and flowers that are usually less than an inch wide. ‘Zagreb’s’ blooms are gold, borne in great profusion and inclined to repeat at least twice during the growing season. Reaching about eight inches tall, ‘Zagreb’ loves to put down roots and spread expansively. I find value in that, as the growth covers the increasingly ugly dying daffodil foliage. I was given a small pot of ‘Zagreb’ by someone who was editing her own garden. She never said a word about its extreme vigor. Fortunately the extra plants are easy to dig or pull out.
I also grow ‘Moonbeam’, a stalwart older verticillata with pale yellow flowers. It is nowhere near as vigorous as ‘Zagreb’ and has a much more refined appearance. It looks particularly good when planted with blue-purple salvia. ‘Moonbeam’s’ souped-up relative is ‘Crème Brulee’, which has the same pale yellow coloring with larger flowers. Last year ‘Crème Brulee’ was everywhere in catalogs and garden centers, as the English nursery, Blooms of Bressingham, marketed the variety as one of its special selections.
I am contemplating purchasing ‘Jethro Tull’, a large-flowered hybrid with quilled petals that curl into elongated tubes. The new coreopsis ‘Pinwheel’, available from Terra Nova Nurseries, has Moonbeam’s pale yellow coloring, combined with large flowers, also with quilled petals. The “quills” flare outwards at the ends, hence the varietal name.
I haven’t had success with red and pink-flowered coreopsis. Several years ago the winter climate in this part of New Jersey killed off my Coreopsis rosea and its relative, the newish cultivar, ‘Limerock Ruby’. Since then, newer varieties in shades of pink and red have come on the market. ‘Heaven’s Gate’ is touted in at least one catalog as an improvement on ‘Limerock Ruby’. There are also bi-colors, like ‘Sweet Dreams’ and ‘Snowberry’, which feature white petals and red centers. The combination of breeding and climate change has undoubtedly made these rosy-hued plants hardier in cold winter climates.
Coreopsis tripteris ‘Lightening Flash’ is distinguished by its yellow-green leaves and tall growth habit. I put one in last year, promptly forgot all about it and was amazed by its rapid growth this spring. It produces yellow flowers in late summer, but the leaves are the main attraction. Mine is growing amid a sea of perilla mint seedlings and the combination of their dark purple coloring and the yellow-green of the coreopsis is very effective. I tell everyone that I did it deliberately, which is an out and out lie. The perilla is completely willful and grows wherever it wants to.
Various coreopsis are available in most nurseries and garden centers that carry perennial plants. For a look at a variety of selections, make an online trip to Terra Nova Nurseries, a breeder and wholesaler at www.terranovanuseries.com. Bluestone Perennials also has a good selection. Find them at 7211 Middle Ridge Rd., Madison, OH. 44057; (800) 852-5243; www.bluestoneperennials.com.