{"id":154,"date":"2009-06-15T06:16:45","date_gmt":"2009-06-15T14:16:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/garden\/?p=154"},"modified":"2015-11-24T07:32:59","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:32:59","slug":"coreopsis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/coreopsis\/","title":{"rendered":"Coreopsis"},"content":{"rendered":"

COREOPSIS
\n<\/font><\/font><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>I think of coreopsis as a high summer flower.\u00a0 Its bright yellow, daisy-shaped blooms seem most appropriate on hot sunny days when the petals look like golden rays.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I picked several stems for an indoor arrangement.\u00a0 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.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Coreopsis is sometimes known as “tickseed”\u009d, which sounds as if the plants carry disease.\u00a0 However, the real explanation is more prosaic and less threatening.\u00a0 The Latin name “coreopsis”\u009d comes from a Greek word, “koris”\u009d, meaning bug or insect.\u00a0 Martin Rix, writing in The Botanical Garden, <\/em>says that this “bug”\u009d reference may stem from the fact that the seed capsules or achenes are round and bug-like.\u00a0 That may, in turn, have led to the common name.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Whatever you call the plant, the coreopsis market has exploded in recent years, with the introduction of many new cultivars.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 As with some other New World plants, like asters and goldenrod, coreopsis has caught the fancy of European plant breeders. \u00a0American hybridizers have gotten in on the act as well.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Its sumptuous petals are golden yellow with deeper yellow centers.\u00a0 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.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My garden is also home to three other coreopsis varieties, all of them low growers.\u00a0 The most vigorous is ‘Zagreb’, a cultivar of Coreopsis verticillata or threadleaf coreopsis.\u00a0 The verticillatas have fine, almost fern-like foliage and flowers that are usually less than an inch wide.\u00a0 ‘Zagreb’s’ blooms are gold, borne in great profusion and inclined to repeat at least twice during the growing season.\u00a0 Reaching about eight inches tall, ‘Zagreb’ loves to put down roots and spread expansively.\u00a0 I find value in that, as the growth covers the increasingly ugly dying daffodil foliage.\u00a0 I was given a small pot of ‘Zagreb’ by someone who was editing her own garden.\u00a0 She never said a word about its extreme vigor.\u00a0 Fortunately the extra plants are easy to dig or pull out.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I also grow ‘Moonbeam’, a stalwart older verticillata with pale yellow flowers.\u00a0 It is nowhere near as vigorous as ‘Zagreb’ and has a much more refined appearance.\u00a0 It looks particularly good when planted with blue-purple salvia.\u00a0 ‘Moonbeam’s’ souped-up relative is ‘Cr\u00c3\u00a8me Brulee’, which has the same pale yellow coloring with larger flowers.\u00a0 Last year ‘Cr\u00c3\u00a8me Brulee’ was everywhere in catalogs and garden centers, as the English nursery, Blooms of Bressingham, marketed the variety as one of its special selections.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I am contemplating purchasing ‘Jethro Tull’, a large-flowered hybrid with quilled petals that curl into elongated tubes.\u00a0 The new coreopsis ‘Pinwheel’, available from Terra Nova Nurseries, has Moonbeam’s pale yellow coloring, combined with large flowers, also with quilled petals.\u00a0 The “quills”\u009d flare outwards at the ends, hence the varietal name.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I haven’t had success with red and pink-flowered coreopsis.\u00a0 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’.\u00a0 Since then, newer varieties in shades of pink and red have come on the market.\u00a0 ‘Heaven’s Gate’ is touted in at least one catalog as an improvement on ‘Limerock Ruby’.\u00a0\u00a0 There are also bi-colors, like ‘Sweet Dreams’ and ‘Snowberry’, which feature white petals and red centers.\u00a0 The combination of breeding and climate change has undoubtedly made these rosy-hued plants hardier in cold winter climates.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Coreopsis tripteris ‘Lightening Flash’ is distinguished by its yellow-green leaves and tall growth habit.\u00a0 I put one in last year, promptly forgot all about it and was amazed by its rapid growth this spring.\u00a0 It produces yellow flowers in late summer, but the leaves are the main attraction.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I tell everyone that I did it deliberately, which is an out and out lie.\u00a0 The perilla is completely willful and grows wherever it wants to.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Various coreopsis are available in most nurseries and garden centers that carry perennial plants.\u00a0 For a look at a variety of selections, make an online trip to Terra Nova Nurseries, a breeder and wholesaler at <\/font><\/font>www.terranovanuseries.com<\/font><\/a>.\u00a0 Bluestone Perennials also has a good selection.\u00a0 Find them at 7211 Middle Ridge Rd., Madison, OH. 44057; (800) 852-5243; www.bluestoneperennials.com<\/font><\/a>.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

COREOPSIS \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I think of coreopsis as a high summer flower.\u00a0 Its bright yellow, daisy-shaped blooms seem most appropriate on hot sunny days when the petals look like golden rays.\u00a0 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 … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-summer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1631,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions\/1631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}