Types of Tickseed Plants

Types

• While most tickseeds are perennials, some are annuals appropriate for planting in flower gardens each year. Among them are cultivars such as Jive, Limbo, Caliente and Salsa. The perennial tickseed forms include different species, such as the ear-leaved tickseed, large-flowered tickseed, lanceleaf coreopsis, greater tickseed and the threadleaf coreopsis. These individual tickseed species have multiple cultivars, including Moonlight, Pinwheel, Redshift, Alba, Jethro Tull, Sunshine Superman and Domino.

Size

• Some of the smaller types of tickseed include the cultivars Nana, Summer Sprite, Goldfink, Sunshine Superman and Golden Dream. These particular plants grow to 12 inches but no bigger. In the range of 1 to 3 feet tall are varieties of tickseed such as Sienna Sunset, Moonbeam, Pinwheel, Route 66, Alba, Mayfield Giant and Early Sunrise. Among the tallest of the tickseeds is Lightning Flash, a hybrid form growing between 3 and 5 feet. Tall tickseed averages between 4 and 8 feet in height, making it a possible choice for the rear of perennial borders.

Color

• Yellow is the dominant color tickseed type flowers such as Tequila Sunrise, Little Sundial, Rising Sun, Early Sunrise, Sunray and Golden dream; their names reflect this fact. Other yellow types include Zagreb, Moonbeam and Golden Gain. Limbo and Cosmic Evolution produce white flowers, while the cultivars Limerock Ruby, American Dream and Heaven's Gate are shades of pinkish-purple. Sweet Dreams is a cultivar possessing white flower petals with a raspberry pink base.

Growing Information

• Tickseeds usually bloom for most of the summer, attracting butterflies. Removing the spent flowers helps encourage new ones. Tickseeds need full-sun locations. Heat, humidity and drought have little effect on tickseed. The perennial forms have varying degrees of cold hardiness. Types like the threadleaf coreopsis and cultivars such as Alba grow in the cold of U.S. Department of Agriculture Plant Hardiness Zone 3, while others, including Sunshine Superman, are cold tolerant only to zone 6. The vast majority of tickseed types grow in zone 9.