Blanket Flowers (Gaillardia pulchella) and one lone red Pentas make up a large bed around my lamp post in the front yard. I describe the Blanket Flowers as quite happy and prolific flowers – they seem to re-seed anywhere at the drop of a hat (or a seed)! Blanket flowers are native to Florida, but actually grow from Florida all the way to Canada.
In Central Florida, Blanketfower is heat- and drought-tolerant. Its peak blooming season is mid-Spring to late-Summer, but generally here has flowers year-round. The bees and the butterflies love it! I found by chance a Monarch Butterfly Chrysalis attached to one, one summer.
As I said, it will reproduce prolifically, anywhere and everywhere – in the cracks of the driveway, in the middle of the flori-mulch pathway. But if the plants are in the ground, it is also easy to dig them up and replant where you want them, and have them grow successfully.
In late fall, trim them down to 6”-8” stubble. You don’t have to worry about cold snaps, they are very hardy.
Caution: If you are purchasing from a box store, check the variety of blanket flower to get the native variety. Avoid non-native Gaillardia aristata or one of the many varieties of Gaillardia pulchella or Gaillardia x grandiflora (a hybrid of G. pulchella and G. aristata).
Resources:
Blanket Flower close-up in my garden
Blanket Flower garden around my lamp post
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