Indian Blanket – Gaillardia pulchella

Common Name: Blanket Flower, Indian Blanket

Botanical Name: Gaillardia pulchella, gay-LAR-dee-a pul-CHEL-la

Decorative Life: 2-3 weeks depending on environment.

Flower Color: Orange, Red, Yellow

Availability: Fall, Summer, Year Round

Using G. grandifolia, Engle et al. (1994) noted that seed-propagated plugs can be stored at about 27F up to 6 weeks if given sufficient light and low temperature treatments prior to storage. While this species requires long days to flower, it can be stimulated to flower under short days by the application of gibberellin (4+7).

Use 36-41 F, but storage is not recommended. Regarding bare-root stock storage of this species at 29F for 4-6 months, best survival and regrowth results were obtained by those stocks that lost the least amount of water during this period.

• Named after 18th century French magistrate and botanical patron, Gaillard de Charentonneau.
• Double flower forms are also available. The specific epithet name “pulchella” means handsome.
• The Compositae or aster family is vast, with over 20,000 species, and is also one of the most developed families. It was named Compositae because the flowers are actually a “composite” of many individual flowers into one head. Hence, when children pull one “petal” off at a time, saying “she/he loves me, loves me not”, they are actually removing a complete flower, not just a petal.
• Some favorite cultivars and their respective flower colors include ‘Red Plume’ and ‘Yellow Plume’. Full sunlight would be best.
• Other Gaillardia species have been shown to cause dermatitis related problems with some individuals.

Yuan et al. (1995) determined that this species requires to have 10 developed leaves before flower initiation could proceed.