Lightning Bug is a compact coreopsis whose daisy blooms open deep ruby red and develop yellow edges and tips as they age, so the clump carries both colors at once, a flicker effect that lives up to the name. It mounds neatly at twelve to eighteen inches and blooms all summer.

Full sun and drained soil are nearly the whole care sheet: it takes drought in stride, and deer and rabbits pass it by. Shear lightly when the first big flush fades and it re-covers itself in bloom. Bees and butterflies visit steadily.