Coreopsis Creme Brulee

Most Coreopsis set little tiny blooms at the top of their long, slender stems. 'Creme Brulee' sets larger flowers (1½ inches wide, which is jumbo by Coreopsis standards) ALL UP AND DOWN THE STEM, for layers and layers of radiant color! And it's prepared to keep the show going for two seasons, especially if you mow it down at the end of summer to let new stems and buds pop up for those long, warm weeks of early and mid-fall! It's simply the most flower-happy Coreopsis ever grown, and I've grown dozens of 'em, let me tell you!

And I can't say enough about how easy this North American native perennial is to grow. It puts up with just about anything, given sunshine and a bit of soil. Deer and rabbits find it unappetizing, so it survives the midnight feasts that reduce your garden to ground-level stems, and it tolerates heat, humidity, drought, cold, poor soil, and anything else Mother Nature can think up to torture you with! Fine for containers, it makes a nice accent planting and is really spectacular in a large planting in some open space. I like to overplant the spring bulb garden with it, so that it bursts into color just as the last Tulips are passing!

'Creme Brulee' combines with just about any other sun lover, and for a truly carefree planting, consider it alongside Miscanthus. It's also happy with Daylilies and Blanket Flowers.

Space these plants about 2 feet apart in full sun. They reach 20 inches high and anywhere from 2½ to 3 feet wide, and look good even when you can manage to catch them out of bloom! Zones 4-9.