Blanket Flower
Gaillardia species. ASTERACEAE (COMPOSITAE).
Planting and Growing Blanket Flower
You’ll find everything you need to know to plant and grow blanket flower in the accompanying table’s tabs:
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- Flowers, foliage, and root structure of blanket flower
- Plant hardiness and growing conditions for blanket flower
- Season of bloom and planting time for blanket flower
- When, how deep, and where to plant blanket flower
- How to plant blanket flower
- Watering, fertilizing, care, and pests or diseases of blanket flower
- Landscape and container uses of blanket flower
- Comments about blanket flower and its features
Growing Blanket Flower
About 14 species and many hybrids of bushy, upright, deciduous annual, biennial, or perennial herbs, 2–3 ft. (60–90 cm) tall. Alternate, hairy, textured, deep gray green, lance-shaped leaves, 3–6 in. (75–150 mm) long.
Planting and Care Guide
Blooms
Showy, gold, deep red tipped in yellow, or yellow flowers, 3–4 in. (75–100 mm) wide, with brown, deep purple, or yellow centers, in early summer–autumn.
Best Climates
Hardy. Self-seeding. Zones 3–9.
Soil Type and Fertility
Damp to dry, well-drained, sandy humus. Fertility: Average–low. 6.0–7.5 pH.
Where and How to Plant
Early spring in full sun, 10–15 in. (25–38 cm) apart, when soil is workable.
Proper Care
Easy. Keep damp; allow soil surface to dry between waterings. Avoid fertilizing. Deadhead spent flowers to prolong bloom. Stake taller cultivars. Prune roots in summer. Divide when crowded. Propagate by cuttings, division, seed.
About This Plant
Good choice for banks, beds, borders, hillsides in cottage, formal, meadow, wildlife gardens. Good for cutting. Attracts birds, butterflies. Aphid and leaf spot, powdery mildew susceptible.