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blanket flower life span?

15 years ago

Hello all. I love blanket flowers. Since I'm not working right now I'm trying to find an easy beautiful flowering plant to grow and try to sell in the local classifieds. Blanket flower isd my choice but I'm not sure on the liifespan and I don't want to sell something that dies after a year. I read that they are a short lived perinal but can't find how long a plant actually does live. If anyone knows please help.

Thank you,

Ian

Comments (4)

coolplantsguy
15 years ago
Most gardeners in North America will find that most Blanket Flowers (Gaillardia), i.e. 'Goblin', 'Fanfare', 'Burgundy', etc., are indeed "short-lived" perennials. This usually means a life-span of two to three years or less. The general description is that they "flower themselves to death".

I've heard of reports from certain areas, that they are longer-lived. Also, in some cases, plants may self-sow to perpetuate longer.

Hope this helps.
abacoian
Original Author
15 years ago
that does help. It stinks because it's such a cool plant. And yes they do reseed like crazy.
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My understanding is that some blanket flowers that grow wild in Texas ( where I am from) are anuals that reseed themselves easily and others are perenials. So, There are blanket flowers sand then there are other blanket flowers. The kinds that have been hybridized for the trade are more like to be perenials. The wild Texas ones are very rain dependat to get their start.. Haven't seen them blanketing lately. No rains . no flowers.
terrene
15 years ago
Gaillardia pulchella is the native annual Blanket Flower. Gaillardia aristata is supposed to be a true perennial. I started both from seed last year, so we'll see if the G. aristata comes back this year, or the G. pulchella reseeds.

From what I understand, most of the nursery cultivars are a hybrid of the two, which results in a short-lived perennial.

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