I've said it before and I'll say it again: if you want lots of flowers and long bloom times, plant annuals!
 
Plains coreopsis is a fanstastic addition to any naturalized or back-of-the-border planting where you want flowers flowers flowers! I think coreopsis gets overlooked because it's often included in those generic 'wildflower' seed mixes, and is perhaps 'too common', but there is a lot to love about this perky native. 
 
For starters, it's super cute: yellow half-dollar size blooms, often with a maroon center, floating on slender stems above narrow thread-like foliage. Second, it's tough and adaptable; in Western Montana it likes to grow in the sand and cobbles along our rivers, meaning it tolerates flooding to dry sand to everything inbetween. Finally, it blooms for a long time, well into September if the conditions are right.
 
Plains coreopsis can tolerate dry conditions, but for max blooms it wants irrigation. Height is variable, but it tends to be taller with more regular moisture. It prefers full sun but will do fine in partial shade. Like all our annuals, it has one goal every season: make as many copies of itself as possible. You can clip seed heads if you don't want it to spread, or save seeds to scatter elsewhere. It will only reseed on cleared, weed-free ground. 
 
Great companions for plains coreopsis include: nuttall's sunflower, wild mint, hairy evening primrose, sneezeweed, western coneflower, blue vervain, and self-heal.