Actually, my gaillardia are the ones that did the best in my efforts. They have the biggest set of true leaves and have just popped so much recently.

My 'Burgundy' were purchased from Parks Seed without the carrier and wintersown December '04; germination was excellent. My G. aristata (common) were from my mother's plants and wintersown '04 with the carrier and these too had great germination results. As a prairie native, Gaillardia spp. have for eons self-sown themselves. It is their nature to survive thru the winter waiting for the right time to germinate. Plants themselves on the other hand will not accept wet winters.
I will be moving around self-sown seedlings this spring as well from both Gaillardia aristata and Gaillardia aristata 'Burgundy'. There are usually a handful of each that can be found.
Maybe the hybrids are a little more difficult?

Okay, maybe I am ignorant, but what is the seed carrier?

I ordered blanket flower seeds from Parks and they are germinating fine.

Does this mean I won't have them next year?

greengardener,

The carrier is what is usually attached to the seed before they are cleaned. It is the attachment that allows the seed to be carried off by wind :D

Vera

Thanks vera!

With a little luck, my gardens will look a quarter as good as yours do!

I have 12 golden gaillardia sprouts from winter sowing in a 2 liter bottle. But, if I was going to be a betting woman, I would spring sow the suckers. for me and my conditions, same with asclepias, oh yea and ditto sea holly.

I sowed them mid-March with their carriers.
(Cunning little things aren't they - how they are made to be borne by the wind?)

I have had good germination, plus they are re-seeding in the garden.
Only thing about them -they get so big and topple over.

Do you all stake them?

ellen

My common Gaillardia are pretty compact...shorter flowering stems, but the Gaillardia aristata 'Burgundy' has very longs stems and is a bit lanky in nature. This one I just let fall where it may and mingle with other near by plants....

Regarding the airborne thing...it was the only way I could describe the carrier attachment at the moment LOL! I suppose they could fly in a really strong wind after they've completely dried and fallen of the head, but I imagine they would more likely attach to animal fur and socks :D

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Vera,
What a beautiful garden! WOW!!
-B

vera,
beautiful - I esp love the top photo.
Tell me, how do you get that random effect?
Do you plant singly or in HOS?
Do you try for that effect or does it just come?
:)

ellen

I didn't sow any Gaillardia this year, but now I wish I had, since some of mine don't appear to have made it through the winter. The 'Goblins' are all fine, but ONLY 1 out of 3 'Oranges and Lemons' seem to have made it. I LOVE the coloring on this one, but I don't think seeds are available, so I went ahead and ordered replacements. Also, all five of my Gaillardia 'Burgandy' have come up, but the only 'Golden Goblin' I had, has not returned either.

Bakemom, is your 'Golden' short like 'Goblin', or taller like Gaillardia aristata? Where did you get the seeds for that one?

Bonnie

I wintersowed quite a few varieties of gaillardia and all of them germinated except Fanfare. I was actually surprised that was the only one that didn't germinate since almost all of the seeds were from trades and many were hybrids that were supposed to be sterile. It will be interesting to see if the plants look like the originals.

Becky
ramazz

Thank you :D

I plant out most everything single...the few annuals I've ever planted out HOS were Clarkia, Nigella and Linaria and perennials like Creeping Thyme and Alyssum 'Gold Dust'. I did HOS by accident some perennial blue flax and what a chore it was the following year to dig up and divide...losing one in the process.

Ellen,
The Gaillardia is a single plant right there and the flowering stems just came up thru other plants. I planted African Daisy 'Jaffa Ice' in front and the Larkspur came on their own. There are also Coreopsis tinctoria just out of the pic (to the left) that also came on their own...they always do! Now the African Daisy (Venidium) have very long flowering stems too and they intermingled as well among their neighbors. Just a note...I noticed the AD that were planted among other plants (that you see above) were smaller plants compared to those planted on the outer side of the bed...those ones were 4' tall and 2.5-3 wide in bloom!

Vera

Many of the Gaillardia hybrids are not sterile :D

Looks like another gaillardia ready to pop. I think I might be spring sowing them from now on. Thanks, bakemom.

My guess is that our winters are no more friendly to them in the jugs than our heavy clay is in the ground. Changing rain, snow, ice, thaw, ice, thaw, rain etc.- my guess is that's not conducive to good results with this seed. Constant freeze would probably be much better.

Karen

My goldens are tall like the regular gaillardia. The seeds are from my own plants. I originally purchased them from Livingston Seeds.

Thank you for this helpful post Kqcrna. I had low germination, maybe one sprout from the wintersowed Gaillardia Brandy, I agree... Those are some pretty plants Vera has. I will have to try this spring sowing then.

I have had at least one sprout on my gaillardia indian blanket, gaillardia burgandy, gaillardia fanfare, and gaillardia summer's kiss. The others I didn't sow until April. I guess I'll have to wait and see how many I end up with.