The coreopsis is an annual flower with gold, brown, and rusty-red flower colors that are warm and distinctive. Plants grow quickly and easily from seed. Plants sometimes live through winter and come back taller and fuller the next year.

Coreopsis is an annual flower with daisy-like flowers. This quick grow plant is perfect for meadow gardens and bouquets.
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Description: Small, daisy-flowered plants appear in summer in most areas, in spring in the Deep South. Each flower is half an inch wide, on wiry, branched stems. Clusters can be a foot across. Cultivars range from under a foot to four feet tall.

How to grow: Plants grow best in full sun. Soil can be of average fertility, well-drained. Space plants a foot apart. Deadhead or remove plants when they become untidy. Let flowers go to seed in places where you want self-sown plants.

Propagation: Start seeds indoors six weeks before the last expected frost, or start them outdoors in beds around the time of last frost. Seeds germinate in a week at 72 degrees Fahrenheit. Thin seedlings.

Uses: Coreopsis is excellent in meadow gardens, borders, and flowerbeds. Dwarf types are good in pots. Use it in bouquets because of its wiry stems and lasting flowers.

Related varieties: Mahogany Midget has red petals around golden eyes and grows ten inches tall. Tiger Flowered is the same size with splotched red and yellow petals. The C. tinctoria species is four feet tall with gold and red petals on two-inch flowers.

Scientific name: Coreopsis tinctoria