COREOPSIS (Tickseed)

Mexico, Central & North America

 

 

 

 

Shiny buds of Coreopsis open into YELLOW flowers that bloom from summer into late autumn & are much visited by bees.  This  low maintenance plant needs only regular deadheading to keep its flowers blooming into late November.

 

“As an easy-to-grow perennial. this plant makes a wonderful addition to a pollinator garden…  can be incorporated in any wildflower garden, particularly as a border plant. It tolerates dry & poor soils & hot weather…

 

 

 

Bee’s Favourite

“Beekeepers consider all Coreopsis species to be good honey sources. In the past, some American Indian tribes applied boiled Coreopsis seeds to painful areas of their bodies in order to relieve ailments such as rheumatism.” The common name is shared by a wide range of plants who have seeds that easily attach to skin or clothing of passersby.”   Wisconsin Pollinators

Coreopsis can be purchased at most garden centers, but be sure that the plants were not treated with systemic pesticides, which will have devastating impacts on pollinators. It is easily grown from seed & once established can be divided in spring. It will readily self-seed.   Threadleaf Coreopsis : Plants for Pollinators / Mozilla Firefox /Powered by Weebly “

 

Traditional

In Floriography, the Victorian Language of Flowers, Coreopsis was seen as ‘always cheerful’.

Coreopsis at Highbury

Our first Coreopsis grew in the crook of the fallen Damson trunk. Its flowers glowed in the sunshine. Above left is our best photo of that plant, taken before the digital camera.

A taller yellow Coreopsis in my mother’s garden drew finches and sparrows in Autumn to feast on its seeds.

In 2016 the vivid RED Coreopsis at top, ‘Limerock Ruby’ from Camden Garden Centre, brightened our garden. The flowers were small, as were the pollinators who came to visit it. We are advised to shear it back after its first flowering; it may be best to treat it as an annual.

 

Coreopsis 2021 :

The yellow Coreopsis at right, a late addition to the garden, came from the Hornsey Pet and Garden Centre in Crouch End. ‘It will extend the season’… And so it has, with a few bright yellow flowers still on show here in mid-November…

Coreopsis 2022:

After surviving the winter, the plant’s many buds are harbingers of a good flowering season to come.

Sadly this plant & a few others succumbed to Powdery mildew.