Name: Coreopsis ‘Star Cluster’
Type of Plant: A perennial for full sun – hardy zones 5 to 9 and some claim colder.
Why I love this: This perennial is long-flowering, bushy and the definition of lovely. It grows two feet tall in my garden and is absolutely covered with creamy flowers in June and July. Is that a blush of peach on the petals or a faint tint of butter-yellow? Toward the end of July, when the first flowering starts to fade, I chopped the plants in half and was rewarded by renewed flowering into September.
A Word to the Wise: Use hedge trimmers to trim the plant down by half any time the flowering starts to slack off. Keeping this perennial on a leaner diet – not too much fertilizer or water – will ensure that it remains strong and upright. Some websites picture the flowers as they are in the cooler weather of fall, when they have an inner blushing of pink and I worry that since they’re pumping up the pink color in these photos that people might be disappointed when most of the summer they don’t see that in their flowers. I actually prefer the clear, summer flowers to those with the pink centers or edges, but either way it’s a lovely Coreopsis that blooms for a long time.
This photo was taken in mid-July when Star Cluster had already been in flower for a solid 6 weeks.
Here is the plant in mid-September…not as many flowers but still in bloom! Had I given the plant another haircut in late-August I might have seen even more flowers in the fall. Next year I’ll try it. The Coreopsis is growing here with Agastache ‘Blue Fortune’ in the background, Coleus ‘Red Head’ in the foreground, and varying shades of pink Nicotiana mutabilis on all sides.
