Alone this tickseed is a leggy plant, unkempt and sprawling. But then, that is what a wildflower is all about; something in the garden that is not of a garden, something not bound by rules or genetic manipulation. The tickseed is an ethereal beauty, overlooked by gardeners who believe that bigger is better.

Leavenworth's tickseed (Coreopsis leavenworthii) inhabits the damp places of Florida--pine savannahs, flatwoods, wet meadows. It is a reliable annual, coming back from seed, year after year. It may pop-up in a garden path or along side a potted palm and I do not have the heart to pull and toss it. Rather, I move it back to its bed, knowing that I will do the same for its seedlings next year.

Near the tropics, there is no drawn out dawn. It is dark, then it is light. If you miss the first horizontal shafts of sunlight, you have missed the dawn.

Once I was searching for an isolated wetland, hoping I was not lost, praying it would be somewhere ahead, beyond the pines. The headlights were the only lights this far from any roads. I topped a rise just as the sun topped the edge of the earth. Thousands of Coreopsis flowers were dancing over the grasses in the misty breath of dawn. Though my Coreopsis are far from that place, their simple grace keeps the wild in my mind.