The winner: Coreopsis, 100/100. Tied for second at 94: Black‑eyed Susan, Cosmos, Mexican Sunflower, Morning Glories.
Every flower here is scored by the same 5 published rules, using one open table of 85 flowers. No taste, no sponsors: tap any score and it unfolds into the lines that made it.
The picks
The flowers that won
The top score, plus the qualifier that asks least of you.
Bloom season in the sun: 4 months · Color palette: 4 documented · Set-and-forget upkeep: low
Flaws, not dealbreakers:no vase data in the postharvest literature
94/ 100tap for the breakdown
Bloom season in the sun19 / 254 months
Color palette20 / 204 documented
Set-and-forget upkeep20 / 20low
Cold-zone reach20 / 202 to 11
Pollinator draw15 / 154 documented
The protocol
How the score is built
5 rules, 100 points, no opinions. Every line reads one field of the table.
Bloom season in the sun25 pointsthe sunny bed is the show bed: 6+ months 25 Read from: the months it is in bloom.
Color palette20 points3+ documented colors 20 Read from: flower color.
Set-and-forget upkeep20 pointslow 20; medium 11; high 3 Read from: how much upkeep extension guides report.
Cold-zone reach20 pointshardy to zone 4 or colder 20 Read from: the zones it survives.
Pollinator draw15 pointsdocumented for 3+ pollinator groups 15 Read from: pollinator groups.
Not ranked here: not documented as a full-sun plant; a woody shrub or tree: ranked on the shrubs-for-full-sun page instead. Scores are never sponsored
and never sold. The full method ↗
The leaderboard
The top ten
The 10 highest of 64 that qualified. Tap any score to open the lines behind it.
Not qualifying is a verdict too: the table simply says this job is not theirs.
not documented as a full-sun plantHydrangea macrophylla, Anthurium, Azaleas and 9 more
a woody shrub or treeLavender, Lilacs, Gardenia and 6 more
The winner's badge
Generated by the ranking above, and re-scored whenever the table changes.
Coreopsis
The badge is generated by this ranking, not awarded by hand. When the
table changes, it re-scores itself.
How we rank
We keep one table of 85 flowers,
with 25 documented facts each, drawn from university and extension sources. Every ranking is
a published formula worth 100 points; tap any score and it unfolds into the lines that made
it. A flower that does not fit a job is not scored lower: it is excluded, and the reason is
named. Nothing here is sponsored, and no score can be bought. When the table changes, every
score and stamp updates itself.
The full method ↗
