Coreopsis Deadheading Guide – Should You Deadhead Coreopsis Plants

Yellow Coreopsis Plants
coreopsis
(Image credit: watcherfox)

Those easy-care plants in your garden with daisy-like blossoms are very likely coreopsis, also known as tickseed. Many gardeners install these tall perennials for their bright and abundant blooms and long flowering season. But even with a long flowering season, coreopsis blossoms do fade in time and you might want to consider removing their blooms. Does coreopsis need deadheading? Read on for information about how to deadhead coreopsis plants.

Coreopsis Deadheading Information

Coreopsis are extremely low-maintenance plants, tolerating both heat and poor soil. The plants thrive throughout most of the United States, growing well in USDA plant hardiness zones 4 through 10. The easy-care feature isn’t surprising since coreopsis are native to this country, growing wild in American woodlands. Their tall stems tend to clump, holding their flowers high above the garden soil. You’ll find a wide variety of blossom types, from bright yellow to pink with yellow centers, to brilliant red. All have long lives, but eventually wilt. That brings up the question: Does coreopsis need deadheading? Deadheading means removing flowers and blossoms as they fade. While the plants keep blooming through early autumn, individual flowers bloom and die along the way. Experts say that coreopsis deadheading helps you to get maximum blooming from these plants. Why should you deadhead coreopsis? Because it saves the plants’ energy. The energy they would usually use in producing seeds once a blossom is spent can now be invested in producing more blooms.

How to Deadhead Coreopsis

If you are wondering how to deadhead coreopsis, it is easy. Once you decide to start removing spent coreopsis flowers, all you need is a pair of clean, sharp pruners. Use them at least once a week for coreopsis deadheading. Go out to the garden and survey your plants. When you see a fading coreopsis flower, snip it off. Be sure you get it before it goes to seed. This not only allows the plant energy to make new buds, but it also saves you the time you might have to spend pulling out unwanted seedlings.

Teo Spengler
Writer

Teo Spengler has been gardening for 30 years. She is a docent at the San Francisco Botanical Garden. Her passion is trees, 250 of which she has planted on her land in France.