What it is
Blanketflower (Gaillardia) (Gaillardia pulchella) is in the Asteraceae (Daisy) family. A Texas roadside native — red-and-yellow 'firewheel' blooms that take blazing sun and sandy soil.
How to grow it
It wants full sun, water it very low, and give it sandy, lean soil. Target a soil pH around 6.0–7.5. Space plants about 12 in apart. Expect roughly Blooms first year. Native annual/perennial.
How it's used
Blanketflower (Gaillardia) is used: ornamental; pollinator.
🔎 How to identify it
- Hairy gray-green leaves
- Red center, yellow-tipped petals
- Self-sows on poor ground
Not for eating
How to grow & propagate blanketflower (gaillardia)
Everything I've worked out about starting this one, keeping it alive through a Texas year, and turning one plant into many — free.
How to propagate blanketflower (gaillardia)
The daisy family is a seed family — those flower heads are seed factories, and most members come up fast and willing from direct sowing. The perennial members (coneflower, black-eyed Susan, the native sunflowers) also clump up over a few years and can be lifted and split in fall or early spring to make free plants and keep the center from dying out.
Growing blanketflower (gaillardia) in Texas
Give it full sun and sandy, lean soil. Match the spot to the plant and most of the battle is already won.
Time your planting to our long warm season and watch the frost dates at both ends; the live weather tool on this site is built for exactly that.
Once it's rooted in, this is a low-water plant — overwatering does more harm than drought here. Water deeply to establish, then back off and let it prove how tough it is.
Harvesting
Figure on roughly blooms first year before you're harvesting.
Making more for free
If you want more, let your healthiest plants mature fully and collect the seed once it's dry on the plant — then store it somewhere cool, dark, and dry until next season.
Part of the free Texas Roots plant database, compiled by Jordan Polasek from his greenhouse in El Campo, Texas. Free to read and share. If it helped, the best thanks is to grow something.