PlantFiles: Plains Coreopsis, Calliopsis, Golden Tickseed
Coreopsis tinctoria

Thinning the seedlings will result in floppy, spindly plants. Thick plantings aid in upright masses. At bloom time, you will have clouds of color. These flowers are one of my favorite for the dye pot. The more red the centers, the yellow color on cloth moves toward terracotta. They are a nuisance to pick for the dye pot as they are very small. When I strip the plants in the morning, they are full of open blooms by late afternoon. They look like I didn't even remove any flowers! I pick the flowers and keep them in paper bags, stirring the mass frequently so they don't clump and mold. When completely dry I keep them in zip-lock bags. If you are a dyer and want clear yellow on cloth, grow grandiflora - they are really easy to pick and don't have red eyes. Both are really beautiful on fiber. Protein fibers (silk and wool) are easier to color than cellulose (cotton, linen and rayon). Absolutely gorgeous on silk!

The ones I grow, reach the height of between 4-6 feet. I've never had any grow less in height.

These grow fast from seed.
They are really spindly and don't need to be thinned out much, if at all. It seems that they support each other by growing close together. I thinned mine out to about 4" and now they are falling over.
The flowers are smaller than Coreopsis grandiflora, which is the perennial tickseed popular in garden stores, but I think C. tinctoria looks nicer.

Easily grown from seed, and definitely attractive to some pretty finches I've never seen in my yard before, so it's not a negative experience, exactly. But I based my siting on other PlantFiles notes, and no one mentioned how weedy the foliage looks, or how bushy they got. Mine have dwarfed the young lilac they were meant to circle, looked very scraggly until they came into bloom, and fell over badly in a hard rain. My plan is to wait for the seed heads to form well, then cut them down and shake them around in a spot where wilder-looking flowers will be attractive and welcome, and where their floppiness won't be an issue.

This is a lovely Texas Native Plant, very attractive annual wildflower used often in cultivated gardens,

This is a nice, drought-tolerant wildflower with a long bloom season. I like the way it looks with ornamental grasses.

A welcome sight along the highways here in West KY. The cheery blossoms create quite a show during the summer.

I've grown it in an unstructured, cottage garden type bed and enjoyed it alot. It reseeds happily and Goldfinches tend to eat enough of them to keep it from becoming invasive here.

I love this flower, it's so sunny and cheerful. It grows alongside the highways in great numbers in Arkansas and Oklahoma, and I'm sure in many other states as well. I've noticed the flower heads tend to follow the sun all day long.

It is very invasive however and I'm sure farmers everywhere hate it. I've seen farm fields full of this flower, very pretty but I doubt the cows like it for food.

I planted it from a nursery conatiner, it did wonderful but you are left with a gazillion flowers to deadhead or it looks rather unatractive. On the plus side as soon as you dead head it comes back with another great show.

Plains coreopsis is an easy to grow plant. They grow 2-3' and need full sun and well-drained, moist to dry soil. They will bloom from summer to fall. The colors vary, but are usually a yellow or orange with a deep reddish-brown center. Plains coreopsis are great in mixed borders or wildflower gardens. They will reseed if allowed.