Gaillardias, also called blanket flowers, are north American natives. Some garden authors have written about how these flowers growing wild create deep velvet-red carpets in Nebraskan pastures.
They are not reliably hardy in perennial gardens if they have wet feet in winter, or if winters are really cold.
The common name is because the colors and zig-zag patterns on some of the petals are like those on Native American rugs.
There are 30 species in this genus of the aster family: annuals, biennials, and perennials. The daisy-like flowers come in shades of red, red-orange, maroon, and yellow, and they have a long season of summer bloom. They are drought tolerant and salt tolerant and need to be divided every 2-3 years to remain vigorous and dead headed to repeat bloom.
Gaillardia aristata is about 2 feet tall and as wide and bears 4" flowers with red/orange centers and petals with jagged edges in zones 3-8.
Grandiflora is a short-lived perennial growing up to 3 feet with larger flower heads in combined shades of maroon, red, orange, and yellow. There are also dwarf cultivars such as 'Baby Cole' and 'Dazzler' that will grow in zones 3-8. Propagate this native by division.
This is Moya Andrews, and today we focused on a gaillardia.
