Gaillardia Pulchella named Sundance Yellow #1

This piece has been featured in the FAA Group, Macro Photography.... more

by J McCombie

Title

Gaillardia Pulchella named Sundance Yellow #1

Artist

J McCombie

Medium

Photograph - Untouched

Description

This piece has been featured in the FAA Group, "Macro Photography".
Gaillardia Pulchella Sundance Yellow (Blanket Flower, firewheel, Indian Blanket, or Indian Blanketflower) is a completely new look for Gaillardia, grown from flower seed! The Gaillardia Sundance series brings petal-packed, pompon-shaped blooms in all shades, including bi-colors. Fully double and just perfect for cutting. This yellow Blanket Flower blooms nonstop from late spring through fall, and the butterflies flock to it the entire time!
This Blanket Flower plant reaches just 10 inches high and 10 - 12 inches wide, growing readily in any type of soil, including heavy clay, sand, and poorly fertile types. It has a yellow shade on blooms 2 - 3 inches wide and nearly as deep. They appear on very strong stems, and are long-lasting after cutting. The bloom time depends on the heat of summer. The heaviest blooms are in the cooler temperatures, early summer and again in the fall. If the summer is mild, the blooms will continue to be heavy all summer. Some gardeners living in hot regions will sow half the Gaillardia flower seed for spring blooms, the other half in midsummer for a big fall encore.
There are about 23 species of gaillardia scattered across the Americas. Most are perennials native to North America, with the heaviest concentration in the southwestern United States. But the genus includes a few annuals and biennials, and a handful of species native to South America. Closely related to the Heleniums, all are in the sunflower (Asteraceae) family. Most are called blanket flowers. Legend has it that a native American weaver was so good at her craft that when she died, her grave was blanketed with flowers colored as brilliantly as the blankets she had made.
The first botanist to describe gaillardia was Auguste Dennis Fougeroux de Bondaroy, who worked from specimens of a lovely, knee-high annual wildflower collected in Louisiana. In 1788, he named it Gaillardia pulchella after French naturalist Antoine Rene Gaillard de Charentoneau; pulchella is Latin for ￿pretty.￿ Its 2-inch, red flowers typically have yellow tips on their ray flowers, and a much darker-red central disc.
Gaillardias are composites, with each daisy comprising lots of smaller flowers. Those smaller blooms are of two types: tiny disc flowers (florets) that cover the central disc, and sterile ray flowers that make a kind of halo around the central disc. The rays come in two forms: most often they look like long, slim, flat petals, but they can also take the form of trumpets. The flower head itself can have the look of a single or a double flower, depending upon its structure. Those with a single look have classic daisy form, like a child￿s drawing of a sunflower. In the doubles, the central disc is crowded with trumpet-shaped, five-petaled flowers. Most gaillardias with ray flowers have a colorful banded look. Sometimes the rays￿ three-toothed tips are some shade of yellow, while the rest of each ray is red, orange, or maroon. In other varieties, the yellow might go nearly to the ray￿s base. And in still other varieties, the whole flower head can be yellow, orange, or red, with no banding. The ray￿s base and the outer edge of the disc are usually the same color, though the center of the disc is much lighter￿even green or yellow￿when the flower first opens. Because each flower head grows on its own stem and lasts long, all gaillardia make great cut flowers. Gaillardia￿s big, soft leaves are generally hairy, strap shaped, and smooth edged, though they can be toothed or lobed. It￿s common to find all leaf types on the same plant. Leaves can be clasping, stemless, or have only short stems, and all plant parts have a light floral fragrance. Flowers pop out just above the leaf mass.
The carefree Southwestern US and Mexican natives thrive in full sun are unfazed by the heat, humidity and drought. They are also salt tolerant and an attractive low maintenance choice for seaside plantings. Indian blanket blooms profusely even in light sands along seashore. Many states are sowing the shoulders along freeways and highways with blanket flowers, providing spectacular displays of color during the spring and early summer. LifeCycle: Annual or short-lived Perennial, Uses: Beds, Container, Thriller, Sun: Full Sun, Height: 10-14 inches, Spread: 10-12 inches, Bloom Duration: 10 weeks, Zones: 3-10.
G. pulchella is a parent of the hybrid G. X grandiflora from which several popular cultivars are widely available including selections with single, double, and semi double flower forms. The other parent in this crossing is G. aristata, a pretty perennial species that is native to the prairies of North America. Among these hybrid selections are 'Goblin', a dwarf that grows only 12 in (cm) tall and is perfect for sunny beds and 'Sundance Bicolor' a double-flowered with a low trailing habit. 'Tangerine' has orange petals. There are more than two dozen species of Gaillardia. Most of these are native to North America including G. pulchella which is found from Virginia to Florida and westward to Colorado and New Mexico extending south into Mexico.

Uploaded

February 18th, 2017