Blanketflower - Missing in Action

I can't figure out what happened to my blanketflower. They all appear to be AWOL. I grew a bunch of them from seed last year, and NONE of them are coming up yet. Even the two that I broke down and bought from Home Depot haven't made an appearance.

My bee balm, coneflowers, lilies, liatris, and ornamental grasses are all present and accounted for, but the blanketflower is still missing. Does it normally make a late entrance or could all of them actually be gone? We had a mild winter, but I'm missing at least a dozen plants.

The ones that I grew from seed were about 2 and a half ft tall. I double checked the envelope, and it definitely says perennial.

They are later than average for me. No signs here, although I am weeks behind you.

My blanketflowers seem to like to like to sleep a little later than the other flowers too. Everything else is up and some are even loaded with blooms but the blanketflower is just now emerging. I'll bet yours will show up soon.

Thank you. If they are just coming out in Mississippi, then I probably have a few more weeks. I'm just surprised that they are taking so long. Al, I guess you have at least a month.

I actually started some different blanketflowers this year - golden goblin.

In 2006 I planted a number of blanket flowers in various places in my yard (mostly Arizona Sun), and none came back. And I planted more in 2007, and none has come back. I am beginning to think they are finicky.

Maybe 10 years ago I planted Goblin and it did ok for at least a few years. I have some seeds, so I'm going to try again.

Happy,

I'm giving them two weeks, and then I 'm giving that space to another deserving plant!

I may just end up treating them as annuals -- except I don't DO annuals. I want a fully self-sufficient, self-perpetuating garden. (LOL)

Just a thought...the gaillardia is more likely to return if you just leave the dying foliage throughout the winter and early Spring. I prune the dead stuff after it starts emerging. BTW, we had one of the worst snowy winters in over 15 years, or so the weatherman says.

I've tried lots of blanket flowers and they don't like our garden either.

I think they stay too moist during the winter and rot out here.

I just cut the stems back about two weeks ago. I generally leave all my stems and foliage so that I can find it in the spring.

If it turns out that they don't come back then I'll just continue to start them from seed, and treat them as an annual.

This is an old-fashioned tall variety, which returns each year. The many "Arizona Sun" cultivars I planted two years running, didn't make it through our very mild winters.

I don't cut back anything in the fall (just lazy -- I clean up in the spring), so that isn't my problelm with blanket flowers.

But nothing that "dislikes wet winters" survives in my yard, so I don't bother anymore. Maybe blanket flowers belong in that category.

I think y'all are right about blanket flowers not liking a wet situation. I tried them in two different beds and they return in the one with a western exposure (drier location and hit hard by north/northwest winds all winter) but not in the other (south exposure) which tends to stay wet during the winter months when the sun is weaker. I also leave a few seed heads on the plant to allow it to reseed itself. That way, if the mother plant dies, I will have volunteers to replace it with (although the mother plant has, so far, always come back). I share all the volunteers with friends.

I'm for sure going to plant more this year!!!

True, they don't like wet feet in winter, they prefer sharp draining soil. They don't like my clay soil.They are also said to be "short lived perennials". For me, that's sometimes one year. They do grow and bloom fast from seed, though. I wintersowed more of the burgundy gaillardia this year.

Karen

I have a feeling my gaillardia will be missing in action this year. I grew it from seed last year and have yet to see anything emerge. Maybe it is the southern exposure others have talked about. I thought the bed was fairly dry through out the winter, but I have been wrong before.

I guess I was wrong. They are coming back. I just need to see if they are truly the dwarf I purchased or taller. Last season they were tall, but i think they may have been trying to catch up. I guess I will find out soon.

Good news for sure, Cabriamo!!

I am glad that I stumbled upon this thread. Last year I had six gaillardia 'The Sun' and one gaillardia 'Burgundy' in my garden. This year I see that only a couple of the sun have returned - the others have not yet emerged, despite being planted in a well drained site. None of the garden catalogs indicate in any way that gaillardia are not reliably perennial - but I agree with those of you who have indicated that they are finicky.
Joyce

I have always read that they are short-lived -- but didn't interpret that to mean they are usually annuals! I guess I will now!

I know they are fairly drought tolerant, and sometimes plants that are drought tolerant will not do well if they stay too wet during the winter. I wonder if that's the case here? Most of you are far enough above the low end of it's hardiness (zone 4) so I don't think it's just cold that's the problem. I looked at High Country Gardens website, and it says they can deal with up to 30 inches of rain per year w/o problems, and 30-40 inches a year with care. So if you're on the upper end of that rainfall amount (or above it) that could cause problems, or even if you're under that if you have clay-ish soil or less than perfect drainage that could cause problems.

That's very interesting -- I never thought about it with the perspective of annual rainfall. Ours is just over 45, if I add together the monthly averages on www.weather.com , which explains the problem!

Mine should be fine then. It is a dry flower bed at the best of times with mulch. I had to really baby all of the perennials I put in last year so that they wouldn't scorch in the heat of the summer.

I'm at the point now that if they did start to turn up, I would probably chuck at least half of them - I had so many! The good thing is that now I have another area to plant some new plants, and this year's crop of golden sun gaillardia.

I expanded three bed this spring, and realized that I still don't have enough room because I keep adding new plants to the garden. I also start a massive amount of annuals. Tomorrow is expansion number four.

happy--don't forget too if you water your garden at all, that adds on top of your natural amount of rainfall. So your plant may be getting 60-70 inches of "rain" if you water regularly on top of the 45 inches you get naturally.

cabrlamo--just because the bed bakes in the sun during the summertime won't necessarily help your plants if you get way more rain (or combo of rain and you watering) than what the plant can handle. I used to live in IN and I'm pretty sure you're in the 35-40 inches of rain ballpark so if your drainage is less than perfect or if you water regularly on top of the natural rainfall you could have problems too.

Of course things like this are just guidelines, I'm sure there are plenty of times these will come back even in a climate that's a bit too wet for them, but it could explain at least partly why they tend to be short lived.

The blanket flower I had, died on me too, short lived, and did not want to try it again. however, when i had her, she was absolutely BEAUTIFUL>.............But she she did die after two years of having her ....rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..............Clemen

Wow, it's very interesting to find out that others have the same problems with blanket flower that I have. I have about a 10% success rate when it comes to them surviving. In 2006, I had 10 plants, and 1 came back (Burgundy). In 2007, I bought only 4, and 1 came back, along with the Burgundy from the previous year. I've just decided it's much cheaper to buy a seed packet of 'Sundance Bicolor', an annual variety, and grow that. It's pretty easy to do.

It defintely sounds like an annual to me!

I just buy seeds now and wintersow them. Even when germination rate isn't stellar, it's still a whole lot cheaper than buying new plants every year. Another wintersower suggested that I wait to sow the seeds until closer to spring, using the same wintersowing method. I tried that this year and had much better germination with them. This will be my approach from now on, I think.

They are such pretty plants, and bloom pretty fast the first year from seed.

Karen

I agree with Karen about winter sowing them in spring. Seeds I started in Feb. have no germination yet and ones I started late April are now sprouting away.

None of mine came back this year (again) and I'll need to treat them as annuals.

Joanne

This is certainly an educational discussion. I hadn't thought of adding in my watering time to the annual rainfall. I think I will be okay. My house sits on a rise and drainage is good. It may actually be a little too good, especially in that particular flower bed! I will remember the WSing tips for these as well.

I'd say about 30% of mine live for 2 years. The rest never make it past the first winter. Lemon and Oranges was a favorite the last 2 years, but bit the dust this last winter. I do see lots of babies coming up from seeds and will be interested to see what they looks like. think it's best to just think of them as short-lived perennials.

susan

I've got seedlings all in the wrong places here also. Still no sign here yet. Last winter I had one make it through that was in rock hard wet clay.

Pretty much everything up but the gaillardia now. I'll leave them be for now - I did add Amber Wheels to that area.

Mine definitely all died. Sad.

Good luck Al. Nothing made it for me, but it is a good opportunity to try some new plants.

Perhaps this needs to be a new thread...so I guess I'll start one, but I'm wondering what other so-called "perennials" don't prove to be long-lasting. Technically, the definition of perennial is that it takes more than 1-2 seasons to complete its lifecycle, which indicates it should normally live at least 3 seasons, you'd think (annuals completing their lifecycle in one season, and biennials two). But I, too, have observed or heard others say that sometimes we stretch that definition in some locations or climates....

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/849961/


This message was edited May 18, 2008 1:05 PM

One of my burgundy survived, and I've got one or 2 goblins which came as volunteers I think. I also wintersowed the burgundy and got 10 or 12 seedlings from that. It's so windy today that I'll be lucky if these tiny wintersown seedlings don't blow to your yard in Wi., Al.

I really do love the burgundy ones.

Karen

Maybe the gaillardia should be classified as a short lived perennial? I will have to wait and see if they come back next year. I must have mulched well, because I do not have volunteers anywhere even though I left the seed heads on all winter. I know I have seen other threads that have talked about short lived perennials.

I agree, though it may be climate-dependent. Maybe in drier climates it is more dependable.