I had better luck with longer cuttings of the beach sunflower rooted in water, or just pinned to the ground and allowed to root there.

I've had no luck with "trying" to grow gaillardia seed, but if I just sprinkled them all over the yard, a bunch usually came up. It is too hot for them to germinate right now. Save them in the freezer, and spread them out in the winter. They'll come up in the spring. Winter sowing always works best with them for some reason.

my two cents: Gaillardia are slow growing initially but will pick up the pace as they mature.. so dont worry :)

I've had good success growing Beach sunflowers from seed. In fact, I often simply scatter the dry seedheads around the area where I want them to grow & they'll start that way - esp. during the rainy season. I think there may be more than 1 variety now - I've seen a shorter version w/ slightly smaller flowers in a neighbor's yard, which may be a hybrid.

For some reason, gaillardias have eluded me this year too - I had some scrounged seed (tall beautiful plants growing in front of a local store) that sprouted, but they all died. I'm guessing it was some sort of hybrid. When I planted seeds from the 'weeds' that you see everywhere around here a few years ago, they did fine - wish I'd kept saving that seed...

Once you get a few gaillardia started you'll soon have baby plants popping up but not invasively IMO. I had some in pots sitting in my driveway and a few months later seedlings appeared 3' higher atop my neighbors wall. Luckily she likes them and has transplanted many plantlets in her yard. Just throw seeds where you want plants and water once a week, you'll have gaillardia.

I have never been able to start dune sunflower from seed or cuttings, that's one that I buy. They do send out a runner which will root and you can cut it apart from the mother plant for a new plant. Never happened for me because I mulch heavily to keep weeds down.

Denise

P.S. There are 2 dune sunflowers, east coast and west coast. One is taller than the other (can't remember which). I have both and cannot tell them apart after 2 years, both are between 1-3' tall.