Leavenworth’s Tickseed

Coreopsis leavenworthii

Leavenworth’s Tickseed is our Florida state wildflower and is abundant along moist, sunny roadsides in the spring and early summer. Some may be blooming in late summer if there is a lot of rain. It is not salt tolerant but will survive back of the dune when protected from salt air.

Just get a few started along the edge of your swale and spread the seeds by hand as they ripen for an even better turnout the next spring. The leaves are six inches long and the total height is usually two feet.

These delightful flowers will rise out of a wildflower planting and never come across as weedy volunteers the way Salvia can at times. The sparse, linear leaves give way to its neighbors.

You can start new ones from seed at any time in trays and plant them in your garden for an off season splash of color.

Mix with Prairie Iris, Yellow Canna, Duck Potato, Pineland Petunia, Water Hyssop, Black Eyed Susans, Twinflower, Browne’s Savory, Water Dropwort, Florida Lily and American Crinum Lily. Or just plant above the water line of a lake where the soil stays moist yet won’t flood and kill them.

Butterflies, bees, moths, beetles, and predatory wasps feed on the nectar. Seed eating birds visit them too.

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