Coreopsis Li’l Bang ‘Daybreak’ Coreopsis Li’l Bang ‘Starlight’
Garden Article, 2020
Coreopsis has been around for a long time, some of the varieties are long lasting others not so much. Some flower most of the summer others don’t. Most are tall and tend to lay down at times. These faults are nonexistent with the introduction of the Li’l Bang™ series by master hybridizer Darrell Probst.
Li’l Bang™ series coreopsis are naturally compact growing to a height of 8-12” as compared to most other coreopsis that grow to 18-24” tall. This compact characteristic makes Li’l Bang™ a great choice for a border, front of a flower bed, rock gardens, in a mixed container or in a pot by itself.
Two varieties of Li’l Bang™ coreopsis to consider are ‘Daybreak’ and ‘Starlight’.
‘Daybreak’ produces an abundance of bicolor blossoms with a prominent orange-red center and fringed, gold petal tips appear over an extremely long period, from early summer through early fall. A wonderful feature is it starts blooming in early summer and the flowers keep appearing into early fall with no deadheading involved since the flowers are sterile
‘Daybreak’ forms a compact, basal mound of highly disease resistant, dark green foliage. If for some reason it gets a little out of shape a simple midseason shearing will keep it looking its best the remainder of the season.
‘Starlight’ is the other strong performer in this series. It has a unique feature of having two different colored flowers depending on the temperature, so it’s like having two plants in one. When it’s hot the petals open a pure, brilliant white with magenta accents just around the center. When it’s cool the whole bloom blushes a rosy pink color, set off by a golden button center.
The especially large white flowers with a burgundy star shaped eye of ‘Starlight’ remain white in hot weather and turn a blush rosy pink in cooler weather. Just like ‘Daybreak’ the flowers are sterile; they just keep on coming all season long without the need for deadheading.
This incredible color-changing Coreopsis displays totally different blooms based on the temperature.
Not only does ‘Starlight’ set exceptionally big, beautiful blooms, but it’s easy to grow, is truly cold hardy, surviving to -20 degrees without damage is highly disease resistance, displaying no disease problems in trials and deer don’t like it. ‘Starlight is a perfect plant for beginning gardeners since, it is very long-blooming, starting at the end of spring and continuing all the way into fall with little care.
Plant ‘Starlight’ and ‘Daybreak in a sunny spot with good drainage. They will tolerate light shade and are not picky about soil type, but the better the soil the better their performance. Another nice characteristic of coreopsis is that it has relatively low water needs, and once established it becomes conveniently drought tolerant.
Enjoy these exceptional long blooming, easy to grow dwarf Coreopsis that are the latest series from master hybridizer Darrell Probst, They are the product of 10 years of intensive breeding involving 8 different species of Coreopsis, these revolutionary hybrids only improve on the cold-, heat-, and drought-tolerance of the native Coreopsis!
Garden Tip: When planting coreopsis mix in with the existing soil two pots of Premeir Organic Garden Soil ( Use the pot the plant came in for measuring) and half of a pot of Sustane Organic compost. Then water the plant with Ferti-lome Rooting-n-Blooming Fertilizer.
Dave Vargo is the owner of Arnold Feed & Garden Ctr (724-335-1821) and Kiski Plaza Garden Ctr. (724-845-8201) Visit their web site at www.kiskigardencenter.com Email questions to dvargokiski@comcast.net all products mentioned in this article are available at either garden center