Blanket Flower is a perennial long season of bloom, produced from early summer to early fall in different shades. Blanket flower, also known as Gaillardia, is a genus of flowering plants in the sunflower family. Gaillardias look like large daisies, with bold, bright markings like those of an American Indian blanket, in patterns of reds, yellows, and golds. The blanket flowers are glandular in most species; however, the inflorescence is a solitary flower head. Blanket flowers are annual or perennial herbs or sub-shrubs, sometimes with rhizomes.
Usually, it grows about 2 ½ feet tall, but there are also dwarf varieties. They bloom in the summer over a long period of time and are a good choice if you’re climate is hot and dry. Therefore, varieties include the mixed colored “Monarch Strain” and solids such as dark red “Burgundy” and “Yellow Queen.”. A multicolored “goblin” grows a foot tall.
This beautiful flower is sometimes rolled into a funnel shape, has many tubular disc florets at the center of the head in a similar range of colors, and is usually tipped with hairs. Blanket flowers enticing butterflies can be grown in containers, and the taller cultivars make nice cut flowers. The amazing flowers are usually short-lived; cutting back clumps to 6 inches in late summer often increases their chances of winter survival.
Blanket flower normally grows in moist, humid areas, and plants may develop fungus diseases in the summer or succumb to rot from winter moisture. Avoid mulching them, and give them light, well-drained soil, preferably on the sandy side. Gaillardias can be grown fairly quickly from seed and will flower the first year.
Moreover, in the spring season, watch for new shoots that may appear quite a distance from the original clump. If the center of the clump dies, discard it and replant the side shoots. Blanket flowers have insect or disease problems; look out for aphids and leafhoppers that can banquet a virus-like disease called aster yellows.
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