Get more bloom for your buck and entice pollinators to your garden with the long-blooming blanket flower.
With such an extensive bloom time, few other perennials can rival what blanket flower brings to the garden.
Come fall, small birds also love to pick seeds off of spent blooms.
Credit: Denny Schrock
The biggest problem with blanket flowers?
They bloom too much!
These plants thrive in zones 3 to 10 and are well adapted to poor soils and severe drought.
Credit: Denny Schrock
To plant the seeds outdoors, rake the soil and scatter the seeds.
Lightly mist the soil and keep the area moist for a few weeks until the seeds begin to germinate.
Wiggle each plant out of its pot and tease apart the roots before setting it in the hole.
Credit: Denny Schrock
Fill in the holes evenly with soil and water the starts thoroughly.
Blanket Flower Care
Blanket flowers are self-sufficient perennials that are more or less maintenance-free once established.
As soon as flowering begins in early summer, blanket flowers won’t stop until frost.
Credit: Edward Gohlich
Light
Blanket flowers need as much sun as you’re free to give them.
Give them a place infull sunand they will continue to thrive through hot summer temperatures.
In any shade, the plants will flower poorly and become stretched and floppy.
Credit: Denny Schrock
In the shade, the plants also face a higher risk of developing powdery mildew.
In shadier areas, blanket flowers tend to grow leggy and bloom less.
In fact, many gardeners have noticed that their blanket flowers seem happiest and most productive in poor soils.
Credit: William N. Hopkins
Pruning
When we say blanket flowers bloom too much, it’s actually true.
This constant flowering is the main reason these plants tend to be short-lived.
How to Propagate Blanket Flower
Luckily, blanket flowers have no problem seeding around gardens.
Credit: Stephen Cridland
you’re free to sprinkle old blooms around to encourage re-seeding for the following spring.
Keep the cuttings moist for up to 3 to 4 weeks and then repot or transplant when rooted.
Another effective way to propagate blanket flowers is through division.
Credit: Marty Baldwin
To do so, just dig around the plant and gently lift the root ball.
Tease the roots apart and separate the plant into two or three sectionseach with its own shoots of foliage.
This hybrid offers the best of both worlds.
Since this hybrid was first discovered, research has continued to work to improve all aspects of these plants.
By breeding with other species and experimenting on the original two species (G. pulchellaandG.
aristata), blanket flowers continue to develop.
Credit: Marty Baldwin
This can be seen in the variety of colors and forms and overall plant habit and hardiness.
Advancements continue to be made, and new types are introduced relatively regularly.
Firewheel
Gaillardia aestivalisvar.winkleriis native to areas of Texas.
Credit: Scott Little
It bears white flowers in summer and grows 18 inches tall and wide.
This recent 14-inch-tall introduction blooms over a long period.
It grows 12 inches tall and wide.
Its silver felted foliage quickly forms a dense, delightful mat.
It also contrasts nicely with other foliage and most flowers, enhancing almost everything.
In hot, humid climates lamb’s-ears may “melt down” in summer, becoming brown and limp.
Wood betony is similar but not as shade-tolerant.
Veronicas
Easy and undemanding, veronicascatch the eye in sunny gardensover many months.
Provide full sun and average well-drained soil.
Regular deadheading extends bloom time.
Salvia, Sage
Few gardens don’t have at least one salvia growing in them.
Most salvias don’t like cool weather, so plant them outdoors after all danger of frost has passed.
Agastache
This hardworking group of perennials does so much.
Also known as hyssop, agastache blooms for a long time in wonderful colors atop tall, striking plants.
They produce a nectar that is irresistible tohummingbirds and butterflies.
Most are heat and drought tolerant.
And their foliage and flowers are fragrant, with scents ranging from licorice to bubblegum.
Most require well-drained soil and prefer full sun, although they will tolerate light shade.
Depending on the variety, coreopsis also bears golden-yellow, pale yellow, pink, or bicolor flowers.
It will bloom from early to midsummer or longer ifit’s deadheaded.
Gaillardia (blanket flower).
“Gaillardia x grandiflora Blanket Flowers.
“University of California.
“Blanket flower, Gaillardia spp.
“University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Gaillardia (Blanket flower, Indian Blanket).
“North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox.
