Do you know how to propagate coreopsis using seeds, cuttings, and divisions? Generally speaking, coreopsis is low-maintenance plants, and propagating them is incredibly beginner-friendly. You can even feel more confident in rooting them if you use a greenhouse to start seeds or cultivate parent plants for cuttings and divisions.
Coreopsis or tickseed is Florida’s state wildflower that thrives in hardiness zones 3 to 9. This gives you an idea of the flowers’ ideal growing conditions, but the greenhouse should save you from getting worried about your vulnerable propagations. While coreopsis is hardy, remember that all plants at the beginning of propagation are still at risk with damages, so choose the best location and follow the methods below diligently.
How To Propagate Coreopsis Correctly
#1. Rooting coreopsis from seeds
It’s not surprising that Cornell University recommends starting coreopsis seeds indoors instead of directly sowing them in the garden. Seeds are sensitive to fluctuating temperatures and weather, so it’s wise to start them in an environment you can control, such as a greenhouse. Afterward, you can move the more vigorous plants outdoors by checking your last frost date as per the area’s hardiness zone.
Where can you get coreopsis seeds? You can buy them, but you can collect them from your existing tickseeds. Check the dead blooms, pinch them off from your plants, then store in a cool, dark, and dry place to get the seeds inside easier later on. You can then collect the seeds from the dried blooms when they rattle inside.
The ideal time to sow indoors is in late winter, but Cornell University mentioned mid-spring is fine outdoors if you have no greenhouse. Just find a location that receives full sun with moist soil, and the seeds should take two weeks to germinate depending on the variety. Afterward, plant your coreopsis 12 inches apart, and they’ll bloom at around two months.
For the greenhouse, you can use a seed tray with potting compost and then keep it moist. Place it where it won’t receive direct sunlight, and adjust the temperatures and humidity indoors. The seeds should sprout at six to eight weeks.
#2. Rooting coreopsis from cuttings
If you have expensive or named coreopsis cultivars, then you know that vegetative propagation is preferable than using seeds. This is because you can’t assume what blooms you’ll get when you propagate from seeds, and if you want to preserve the true identity of a cultivar, cuttings and divisions would be the sensible choices. When rooting coreopsis from cuttings, you can take them from the parent plant in spring.
Remember that regardless of what you’re propagating, the parent plant should be healthy and embody the characteristics you want to clone. This is where using a greenhouse is advantageous because you can ensure that you’ll have healthy coreopsis plants for taking the cuttings. Once you have your eye on a plant, make a 4-inch cutting at a node with a sharp and sterilized knife at a 45-degree angle.
You want to keep the cutting bare and only keep some leaves toward the top. Dip it in a rooting hormone to help with growth and use a pot with moist and fertile soil. The pot should be in direct sunlight at temperatures around 65°F, and the cuttings should have rooted themselves by two weeks, ready for replanting.
#3. Rooting coreopsis from divisions
If you want to get actual plants from your cultivars and hybrids, rooting them from divisions is a sure method to clone them. The University of Vermont recommends doing so in spring when you notice new growth on your coreopsis plants. You can also divide your plants consistently in early spring or even fall every 2 to 3 years, which will benefit your coreopsis in the long run.
Be gentle in digging up your plants and then shake off the soil from the clumps. Divide the crown into sections so you’ll have new ones with roots. You can then plant these sections in the same growing environment as the parent plant, but remember to keep the divisions well-watered for weeks until they establish themselves.
Maintenance And Care Of Coreopsis
Most university extensions praise coreopsis for being resistant against most pests and diseases. Therefore, you don’t need to do unique practices when caring for and maintaining them. You can, however, prolong your blooms by deadheading, which will also prevent reseeding.
One can say that coreopsis requires deadheading as a non-negotiable task because it will ensure that the new growth will be healthy. Gardeners who want fall bloom should cut back late in summer and then let those bloom in fall be before cutting back again in early spring. You can also keep the seeds at the end of the flowering season for feeding birds.
Conclusion
You don’t need to live in Florida to cultivate the state’s wildflower. Learning how to propagate coreopsis is easy, even for a novice. You can root tickseeds from seeds, cuttings, and divisions, and all methods are quick and straightforward.
The best environment for propagation would be in a greenhouse because it’s suitable for starting vulnerable seeds or growing parent plants for cuttings and divisions. Like all plants, newly propagated plants are still establishing themselves, so you must get them vigorous enough for transplanting in fluctuating outdoor conditions.