Bakemom...in my experience these beautiful plants are short lived. I have grown garilardia, burgundy and goblin. Mine live 2 or 3 years. Maybe because they are such great & constant bloomers they don't last longer..don't know for sure. I have sometimes let some go to seed & once in a while they do reseed, but not consistently.

..Beverly

Agreed, 'Goblin' and 'Burgundy' tend to die out after a few years. 'Red Plume' is typically grown as an annual.

I've had 'Summer Fire' for the past two seasons - haven't looked to see if it's back for year 3.

Burgundy and Goblin both lasted 2-3 years. I believe the Goblin died out, but it was in a poor location, in a narrow bed along the alleyway. I gave the Burgundy away because it was simply too large for the location.

I'm so mad about Bi-color Gallardia! Maybe four years ago, I planted a lot of the red and yellow plume annual gaillardia. Towards the end of the season I noticed a few natural mutations, with the red and yellow pattern of the Goblin, but in the plume form of the annual.

So I saved the seeds from those plants, and next season sowed just those. That summer, about half the plants had the mutation. The next season, about 75 percent were the variation. And so on.

So this season, just as I'm ready to distribute my fabulous mutants -- they're on every seed rack in America!

Hi!

I'm new on this forum and for the first time trying my hand at gardening. 10 days ago I have started Gaillardia. All the seeds have germinated but they have not grown up or shooting up any true leaves. Is this normal or am I just hurrying too much. Please advice.

The temperature where I live (Kolkata, India) is currently around 37º - 40ºC max and 25º - 28ºC min, with no rainfall. Though according to the met predictions monsoon is likely to set in another 15 - 20 days. I'm just spraying the seedlings with a mist of water and have germinated them on a mixture of fine soil plus dry leaf dust (50 - 50 ratio). I'm keeping them covered with a paper dome all the time except for two hours in the morning and two hours before the sun set.

Am I doing things okay?

I'm not sure what your conditions in India are but here, they stay very small until it gets warmer. They love full sun and well drained soil. Mine have set up a third leaf, but are still small. It's 40-50 farenheit at night and 60-70 farenheit during the day. It's a great plant for a dry sunny place.

I would be concerned about over watering them and coddling them too much. They harden off quite quickly and seem happiest when they are planted out.

Hi!

Thank you so much indeed for your reply. It's already very hot here the day time temperature range is about 40ºC, while during the night it's around 27ºC. I'm spraying the Goblin seedlings with a mist of water and they are just 11 days old. How long do you think they take normally to have their first set of true leaves?

Thanks in advance.

bakemom
My burgundy lasted for two years before it died. But I loved the color and number of blooms so much that I bought another this year and WS'd some seeds.

My goblin is four years old and still growing strong. I WS'd Golden Goblin and Arizona Sun this past winter so this will be the first year for them for me.

I also have Mandarin, Summers Kiss, Fanfare and Sun for the first time. I am going to save seed to WS.

I am also going to try mulching all my gaillardia this winter. I am hoping that will help keep them going a year or two longer. I read in a propgation book that once the gaillardia breaks dormancy in spring, you should take a trowel and make a few cuts throw the roots and more plants will sprout up through those cuts. I tried it on my Fanfare (just one trowel cut because I was afreaid I would kill it) and I have a lot of teeny plants coming up in that area. So I am going to try it on a few more plants.

Diane

Since Gallardia is truly a short lived perennial it needs to be divided every couple years to keep it rejuvenated.
Its too bad that most catalogs and nurseries dont identify it as such.

Sue
"The one thing all gardeners share in common is a belief in tomorrow"

Candle, the first true leaf comes pretty quickly. This is a drought-tolerant plant here in the US and without knowing more about your conditions I can't answer your question. I can't imagine misting a plant that is drought tolerant. The soil and roots need moisture, but the leaves here hold their own.

Do you have the equivalent of a county extension in India? That question sounds wierd, but it's the best I can do.

I planted Fanfare last year and was relieved to see that it came up again this year (some Gaillardias haven't for me!) It already has buds.

I love this flower