Native Blanket Flower Blankets Gardens in Bold Color: Native to the area, blanket flower is simple to grow from seeds. It works well, can be changed, and will make your garden look beautiful.
Native Blanket Flower Blankets Gardens in Bold Color
Blanket Flower Care and Growing Tips
- Botanical name: Gaillardia spp.
- Zones: 3 to 10
- Attracts: Birds, bees and butterflies
- Light needs: Full sun
- Size: 2 to 3 feet tall
- Grown for: An explosion of color and drought tolerance
- Foliage: Long gray-green leaves
- Soil: Well draining
Blanket flower (Gaillardia pulchella) is one of the few plants that really shines in the sun. The blooms show up in late spring and last until September. They are a mix of yellow, orange, red, and maroon.
Don’t miss out on one of our best native wildflowers if you want to add a great splash of color to your garden from spring to fall (and almost all year in zones 9 and 10). It has a lot of bright yellow and orange flowers that bloom for months on end. Good quality seeds make it easy to grow the plants.
Blanket Flower Benefits
Birds & Blooms has put the blanket flower on a number of “best lists,” such as the top 10 plants for sandy soil and the top 10 flowers that do well in hot weather. Wildlife will love this easy-to-grow wildflower, which is also great for cutting.
It usually grows next to roads, in wildflower meadows, and other places where native plants are highlighted. It grows well in pots and can even handle salt. Most rabbits don’t bother with it, but goldfinches like to eat the seeds.
Is Blanket Flower an Annual or Perennial?
“This plant there has grown in our garden every year for two or three years.” It’s lovely for the bees. What is it, please?” “What do you think?” asks Thomas Marnocha, a reader from South Bend, Indiana.
Gaillardia, which is another name for the blanket flower, is a plant that is good for bees, says garden expert Melinda Myers. There are species of these plants that flower freely all season long. Some are annual, some are biennial, and some are perennial.
Gaillardias do best in hot, dry places with soil that drains quickly. In fact, perennial types often don’t make it through the winter because they flower too much and can’t handle soil that doesn’t drain well. This is especially true for plants that grow in the North. This doesn’t look like a problem in your garden, which is good.
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If you’ve had trouble with blanket flowers making it through the winter, try cutting the plant back to six inches in late summer. This tells the plant to switch its energy from making flowers and seeds to storing food for the winter.
Start Blanket Flower From Seed
It’s interesting that I keep reading articles that say this plant is hard to grow from seeds. I laugh every time I read this. There are many Gaillardia plants in my yard. They all came from a packet of seeds I bought from the Florida Wildflowers Growers Cooperative one year.
Many, many flowers have bloomed on dozens and dozens of plants over the years thanks to a single $3 investment. After a freeze, they die back, but new ones grow nearby a few weeks later. In Florida, I can count on blanket flowers to bloom from late February until winter comes back.
It’s better for plants to be ready for winter if you live in a colder area. As fall approaches, leave flower stalks and seed heads standing.
Blanket Flower Cultivars to Try
Also, the United States is home to a number of other species of Gaillardia. A lot of them are useful for wildlife or in a cutting garden. You can pick just one color, get a “pincushion” effect, and more. Butterfly lovers are drawn to Mesa Red’s deep red-orange flowers. If you want something a little more sunny, try Mesa Yellow. Classic bicolor is also available from Arizona Sun.