Year of the coreopsis
Each year the U.S. National Garden Bureau selects one annual, one perennial, one bulb crop and one edible as its “year of the” crops.
Plants are chosen because they are easy-to-grow, widely adaptable, genetically diverse, and versatile. For 2018, the National Garden Bureau is featuring coreopsis as its perennial selection.
January is the perfect time to sit back and do a little research on plants that deserve a place in our home gardens. The following information is provided by the experts at the National Garden Bureau, to keep the information relevant to Niagara gardeners, I have included local sources for some of the named varieties.
In the language of flowers, coreopsis means “always cheerful,” and these delightful natives of the Americas live up to this designation in glorious fashion. Equally, at home in naturalized prairie settings or manicured landscapes, coreopsis provide a lovely sunny presence wherever they make their home. Although typically seen in colours of yellow and gold, many species also contain red, bronze and burgundy colours and have been commonly used as dyes in native fabrics. The flowers were also boiled into teas by the natives of North America before the introduction of coffee.
Some history of coreopsis
As many as 80 coreopsis species can be found naturalized in the Americas. A member of the asteraceae family, which covers a broad collection of daisylike flowers commonly called composites, Coreopsis flowers are made up of two primary elements; the showy ray of colourful petals that surround a typically bronze or brown centre of disk flowers. Unlike its cousins in the sunflower group (helianthus, heliopsis and helenium), botanists opted to name our cheerful floral friend with reference to the appearance of its seed rather than the beauty of its flowers.
The common name tickseed comes from the Greek ‘koris’ meaning bed-bug and ‘opsis’ meaning appearance and refers to the resemblance of the seed. Regardless of the less-than-endearing botanical designation, coreopsis carries on with its “always cheerful” show of abundant, colourful flowers in the spring and summer garden.
Key species and cultivars
The variety Early Sunrise (C. grandiflora) was designated an All-America Selection winner in 1989 and remains among the bestselling coreopsis for garden use. Other important varieties include Moonbeam, Zagreb (C. verticillata) and Nana (C. auriculata).
Coreopsis Golden Gain (C. verticillata) has called my front garden home for the past decade. It is extremely self-sufficient, doesn’t mind the heat and is very drought tolerant. Butterflies and bees visit in the summer months, and the local finches enjoy the seed crop in the fall and winter months.
Coreopsis species have been heavily hybridized for decades to improve plant flowering, flower size and disease tolerance. Sunkiss (C. Grandiflora), available locally from Stokes Seed (www. stokeseed.com), is one of a group of new introductions that represents the dedication and years of effort by plant breeders.
There are dozens of commercially available cultivars varying in height from 15 centimetres to 90 cm and covering a broad colour range from the traditional yellow to caramel, bronze, red, gold, rose and cream-white. They can be incorporated into nearly any area of the garden where the height and colour are needed. Visit www.perennials.com for detailed information.
Care and cultivation
Gardeners have had success cultivating coreopsis for centuries. This is due in large part to the carefree growing nature of the genus. J.T. Lovett Co. of Little Silver, N.J., listed C. lanceolata as “one of the finest hardy plants grown” in its catalogue of 1891 adding “a bed of it in full bloom is a sight indeed.” Lance leaved coreopsis (C. lanceolata) is available locally from www. oscseeds.com.
Today, coreopsis is in the top ten genera of cultivated perennial plants. Coreopsis commercially available in today’s retail outlets prefer sunny locations with well-drained soils as these are typically derived from the northern and prairie species. Varieties in C. verticillata are known to expand their territory by underground rhizomes and should be renewed periodically unless the gardener wants them to take over the space allotted altogether. Coreopsis are considered to be long-day obligate plants which mean they need a day length greater than 12 hours (typically 13 to 14 hours) to produce flowers. One notable exception is Nana, which flowers under shorter day length. Most cultivars will re-bloom when old flowers are removed. This can be accomplished by removing individual spent flowers or by shearing the plant to 50 per cent of its original flowering height. Re-blooming will occur within a few weeks.
Due to their abundance of flowers, coreopsis is a pollinator magnet attracting bees and butterflies to blossoms and birds to seeds. They are also resistant to deer feeding and considered drought tolerant.
Coreopsis in the garden does benefit from fertilizing in the spring to encourage new growth. Although we believe coreopsis to be a garden plant, it is equally at home in containers and will provide all the show and interest as a container plant. Consider varieties in the C. grandiflora and C. x hybrida group for container use.
Given the beauty, resilience and popularity of coreopsis, it is entirely fitting that the National Garden Bureau has designated 2018 as the year of the coreopsis.