If you want coreopsis success, I recommend staying away from the trendy foo foo varieties and grow the species (several of which are native to Texas)...they're much stouter constitutionally.

I wouldn't give up on it yet;
this is the end of the season for coreopsis, & even my single ones look like last week's toast.

Cut them back, mark them so you don't dig them up by accident, & wait for spring.

& as dbarron says, when you get coreopsis, or pretty much anything else including dogs, get the more 'species', less recessive types.

What's funny about "foo foo" cultivars is that my "Marcus" Salvia have done just fine with once a week watering all summer. I guess it just depends on the plant...

Do coreopsis typically go dormant in the summer? Maybe my plants in the past were just going into a summer dormancy when I thought they were dead...

Mine always go dormant in summer after June and spend the hotter second half of summer looking like crap. I've decided to not waste space on them and ripped the few out that I'd bought on impulse. The only ones that will stay are the ones that do OK in shade in the not so important area where there's not many choices but they are just boring green foliage in summer & I have been planting Turk's Cap to take over the spot. In spring, its sunny back there.

The other thing, that I forgot to put in my first post, is that it looks like the plant isn't mulched.

Without mulch, the ground dries out almost as soon as you turn off the hose & walk away.

Mulch is a life & death matter for many plants here in the summer.

This is true, Sylvia. I need to get the drip irrigation installed in these beds first. Unfortunately, that's taken longer to get to than I envisioned. I normally always mulch my plant beds. Maybe that'll help once that's done.

Ranger-it sounds like your experience is about like mine then. I'd be happy if they were just "green" plants instead of looking like death warmed over! This is right by my front door, so this summer dormancy thing may not cut it, at least in this spot. I'm starting to think so Hymenoxys might be a better solution. Hmm...

I have tried several coreopsis varieties and every one of them looks awful in the heat of summer. I have kept only a couple of clumps of a native variety, but I am sometimes tempted to shovel-prune them because they require frequent dead-heading.
Molly

And I thought something must be wrong with my 'skills' as a gardener since I could never grow them. For one thing I didn't know they went dormant in the summer.

Even up here in Arkansas, coreopsis lanceolata puts on a great show, then dries up and doesn't put up new greenery till autumn rains start (overwintering basal rosette). So...winning the award for attractive foliage all season, they're not :)

There are so many yellow blooming plants that bloom spring to fall that are better IMO. If you have sandy soil or at least good draining soil Desert Marigold (Baileya multiradiata) is a much better choice-- they don't need watering, have gorgeous blue foliage and keep putting out 2" soft yellow daisy flowers on stiff upright stems all season until frost. Sow seed in winter and they will naturalize nicely. They usually come up here in winter from last years plants. One plant can have at least 100 blooms at any time all season.

The blue leave plants are Desert Marigold. The green leaf ones are annual helenium. Both bloom non stop yellow spring till frost.

This post was edited by TexasRanger10 on Sat, Sep 13, 14 at 21:58

What ticks me off is they're touted as supposedly blooming all spring in summer. That may be true in say, Iowa, but here in our TX summers, that doesn't appear to be the case.

The one in my pic now appears to be completely dead. This is after rain and cooler temps of late. The other 4 are green, but worse for the wear. Can't decide whether to "shovel prune" them though. Love that term! I just hate throwing in the towel too quick, but at the same time I'm seeing a trend here among everyone who's grown them around here (or tied to.)

I must have missed something as I have never had them go dormant in the summer. They are a wild weed that run all over the flower bed if not kept pruned back. Could be the varieties you are growing.

Wow, Wally, my thumbs just turned completely brown after seeing that. :^P

I have to ask what part of the state you're in. I'm guessing one's chances may be better in east TX than here in the Austin area.

It looks like you have a "native" variety, rather than a "foo foo" variety like mine too.

My lanceleaf doesn't do well after the spring bloom either, but then I don't water mine. I should plant something over them so the scraggly stuff is covered the rest of the year.

If you're taking offense at my 'foo foo'ing the cvs.

Think of it this way...a native plant to your area, has evolved to be able to take whatever nature throws at it...and thrive on it.

Plants selected for whatever criteria in areas not like yours....often will not perform as well. I can tell you now..not many breeders are growing and selecting plant varieties in the drier and parts of Texas :0
Even though I'm in a much less harsh environment, even I envy how good the flower beds look in Canada and north of Nebraska, they never look as tired and worn as ours typically do by the end of season.

So...it's a clear case of 'buyer beware'.

Wildflower center has the native lanceleaf (coreopsis lanceolata) blooming from April to June, which is pretty much how ours performs. Occasionally will sport a few more flowers at other times with a cool-off and/or some rain, but not consistently. So, have never been disappointed expecting spring to frost blooms. But foliage did look pretty ragged by this time of year when it was in an unwatered bed.

TexasRanger10, like the suggestions on the longer flowering xeric alternatives. Hope to try one or both on our blackland prairie clay. A similar yellow native that works sun or shade in our clay soil is zexmenia (wedelia texana). Main tradeoff is that a single plant will eventually grow to cover almost 9 square feet unless it is trimmed. We'd have to cut a well established zexmenia back 2 or 3 times a season to keep it within the 2ft deep bed where the coreopsis seems to fit just right.

Here is a link that might be useful: Zexmenia, Wedelia texana

Yes, those flowers of the Zexmenia fit right in with coreopsis...so would my favorite, Engelmanii daisy.

I like the Engelman/cutleaf daisy much better now that we've gown it in a sunnier spot. Here it starts blooming around the same time as the coreopsis, but continues well into July. Our first ones were seeded in heavy shade with salvia coccinea where they still flowered, but not nearly as long and looked MUCH weedier - amazing the difference when treated right. Will be planting more in sun this spring.

Yep, I love them...if adequately watered in full sun in Oklahoma, they flower pretty much continously from April till November, and occassionally a flower or two in December.
I seriously don't know another plant that do that for several years (ie not an annual) continously.

This post was edited by dbarron on Fri, Sep 26, 14 at 11:17

Interesting about how long you can extend the blooms with some water. Ours gets nothing but rain. Will see what what happens if I can remember to move one to an irrigated bed.