There is a new perennial in town and I have heard that this is the only blanket flower like it in the world! Its botanical name is Gaillardia x grandiflora Dakota Reveille. This new blanket flower is so big and beautiful that it almost looks like a big dahlia.

This amazing flower starts as a green cone-shaped bud with short red petals tip in yellow. As the flowers mature, the buds cover themselves in petals forming a giant pompom displaying huge double blooms with bi-color petals in trumpet like form. And get this, they flower heavily from early summer through mid-fall in most climates.

They are so beautiful that you can use them as cut flowers and will last a long time in a vase. The stems of the blanket flower are very sturdy and once you cut them, they come back again and start blooming just like any other perennial. As soon as you snip the blooms, new buds will appear quickly.

Blanket flower is considered a hardy Native American perennial which can grow anywhere in the country. It resists cold, heat, humidity or drought conditions. The best part about this perennial is that any well drained soil is all you need. It thrives in any kind of soil and it even grows well on sandy soil.

These flowers are easy to maintain and you can use them for borders, containers and beds to add great color to your garden over a long blooming season. They will grow to 15 inches high and 18 inches wide. Grows well in zones 3-9 and requires full sun exposure. The soil can be any type such as sandy, poor, normal or even clay based and you will still have beautiful flowers in your garden.

In the fall, be sure to leave the final flowers on the plant as these will provide a feast for songbirds to perch on the strong stems and pick out the seeds from the cones once they dry out.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 4:38 am and is filed under Flower Gardening, Gardening, Perennials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.