Blanket Flower Seeds (Gaillardia aristata)

from $4.00

Botanical name: Gaillardia aristata‍ ‍ • Bloom season: Summer to fall‍ ‍ • Bloom color: Red-orange with yellow tips‍ ‍ • Pollinator value: Long bloom window with open landing-pad flowers for butterflies and small native bees

Seed of one of the longest-blooming and toughest natives in the catalog, and an easy one to start from scratch. Blanket Flower germinates readily without special treatment, making it a good first seed for anyone who has never grown natives from seed. Expect red-orange daisies with yellow tips from early summer to frost.

Botanical name: Gaillardia aristata‍ ‍ • Bloom season: Summer to fall‍ ‍ • Bloom color: Red-orange with yellow tips‍ ‍ • Pollinator value: Long bloom window with open landing-pad flowers for butterflies and small native bees

Seed of one of the longest-blooming and toughest natives in the catalog, and an easy one to start from scratch. Blanket Flower germinates readily without special treatment, making it a good first seed for anyone who has never grown natives from seed. Expect red-orange daisies with yellow tips from early summer to frost.

Size:

Sowing and Growing Notes

Sow Blanket Flower in fall or early spring onto a firm, weed-free surface in full sun with sharp drainage. The seed needs light, so press it in rather than covering it. It does not require cold stratification, unlike the milkweeds and penstemons, so a spring sowing works fine. Keep the surface damp until seedlings establish, then reduce water sharply.

  • 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

Blanket Flower often blooms in its first year from an early sowing. Once established, deadhead through the season to prolong bloom, and cut it back fully in fall if you do not want volunteers, since Gaillardia is an exception to the leave-a-third rule. Let some seed drop if you want the stand to renew itself, because individual plants are short-lived.