Blanket Flower (Gaillardia aristata)

from $8.99

Botanical name: Gaillardia aristata • Bloom season: Summer to fall • Bloom color: Red-orange with yellow tips • Host plant (elsewhere in North America): Schinia masoni

Gaillardia is native to the Great Basin, and oh what a diehard! Daisy-like blooms in red-orange with yellow petal tips and a dark central dome, blooming from early summer until frost with almost no gap. It is one of the longest-flowering natives available and one of the toughest, holding up in heat, wind, and poor soil. The wide-open flower is an easy landing platform, which is why butterflies and small native bees visit it so consistently. Fifteen specialist bee species are recorded on blanket flowers across the western US, bees whose young can eat this pollen and nothing else.

Botanical name: Gaillardia aristata • Bloom season: Summer to fall • Bloom color: Red-orange with yellow tips • Host plant (elsewhere in North America): Schinia masoni

Gaillardia is native to the Great Basin, and oh what a diehard! Daisy-like blooms in red-orange with yellow petal tips and a dark central dome, blooming from early summer until frost with almost no gap. It is one of the longest-flowering natives available and one of the toughest, holding up in heat, wind, and poor soil. The wide-open flower is an easy landing platform, which is why butterflies and small native bees visit it so consistently. Fifteen specialist bee species are recorded on blanket flowers across the western US, bees whose young can eat this pollen and nothing else.

Size:

Plant Characteristics

Botanical Name: Gaillardia aristata

Cultivar: None (straight species)

Common Name: Blanket Flower

Native: Native

Sun: Full Sun

Water: Low

Bloom Time: Summer to fall

Bloom Color: Red-orange with yellow tips

Pollinators: Bees; Butterflies

Deer Resistant: Yes

Mature Size: W 1'-1.5' x H 1'-2'

Soil: Sharply drained; lean soil, rots in heavy wet ground

Plant Type: Herbaceous perennial

USDA Zones: 3 to 9

Spread Habit: Clumping; self-sows

Available As: Live plant

Native Region: Northern Rockies; Middle/Central Rockies; Northwestern Great Plains; Columbia Plateau

Host Plant (Elsewhere in North America): Schinia masoni

Growing Notes

Full sun and sharply drained, lean soil. It rots in heavy, wet ground, which is the single most common way it is lost here; a raised bed or a gravelly slope suits it. Space about 15 inches apart. Do not fertilize, which produces lax growth and fewer flowers.

  • Water: Low

  • Sun: Full Sun

  • Soil: Sharply drained; lean soil, rots in heavy wet ground

  • Mature size: W 1'-1.5' x H 1'-2'

Maintenance

Deadhead throughout the season to keep it flowering, and note that gaillardia is the second exception, with yarrow, to the leave-a-third-standing rule: cut it back fully in fall if you don’t want it seeding around. It is naturally short-lived, often three or four years, so let some seed drop or plan to replace it. Divide in spring if the clump falls open.