Blanketflower / Gaillardia

Gaillardia x. grandiflora 'Mesa Peach' this is gone
From High Country Gardens in Fall, 2018

Gaillardia aristata
From Plants of the Southwest in Fall, 2019

Photos

Expectations:

I thought blanketflowers would be good for hot, dry, sunny, sandy conditions, but in fact they want moist, richer soil, but it has to be fast draining. They even want some shade. Caution about overwatering and root rot.

Blanketflowers are short lived. Divide for more every couple years. Cut back in late summer after flowering for better winter survival.

'Mesa Peach' has orange and yellow colors and blooms earlier than most blanket flowers. And it goes all summer without deadheading.

Experiences:

Gaillardia aristata

Originally I put 'Mesa Peach' along the driveway strip to get some hot orange there. I wanted blazing color and bit of height.

Although it needed no deadheading, I was taking off the spent flowers. It started blooming prolifically in late May of its first spring, 2019.

But this strip was too hot and dry, and in sun the color faded out badly. It wilted in the daytime. 

In spring 2020 I moved it to the kitchen courtyard, but it still needed a ton of water or it withered and looked awful all the time. It flowered but never developed any orange, just a faded yellow. I took it out in summer 2020.

I decided I don't like the clumpy named blanketflowers, but a speices variety -- Gaillardia aristata -- with small delicate flowers and a more open habit are nice. Their blooms are softer colored. So I added a few of these taller, more deeply colored blanketflowers to the driveway strip in 2019.

July 16, 2020  

Again the site was too harsh for them and too dry.

I moved those too, in spring 2020. They were wimpy and truly struggling. I put them in the potting bench curve where it's moister and there's a bit of shade and they immediately looked better. Although only one has a single flower, it's a pop of color from a distance. I wanted more of these but could not find any.

I ended up with seeds, a whole quarter pound from High Country Gardens and started some indoors in 2021.

2022

Only a few took and they were transplanted to the foot of the birdbath in the new garden created when the Spanish broom came out.

They looked truly spectacular around the turquoise birdbath all summer in 2022. 

A few did come back in 2023 but never got more than an inch high with two leaves -- they simply could not compete with their creeping thyme around them.

So there were no happy orange blanketflowers standing tall at the birdbath in 2023. When I dug the little strugglers up and potted them, they immediately started growing. 

After some growth, I took them out and put them behind the new bench, away from the competing thyme roots. 

The plan is to have their tall sturdy stalks rise up above the bench and be seen from afar.