Spring Has Arrived! Part 5: Blanket Flower

There are some flowers, no matter how common, that always make me happy! So when the trails are decorated with sunflowers of any variety, it’s hard not to smile from cheek to cheek!

Yellow Blanket Flower fills this bill …… a what a lovely burst of sunshine popping up today!

If you’ve ever planted a flower garden, there’s a good chance that seeds from a Gaillardia species, aka blanket flower, was included in your seed packet. A prolific seed producing annual or short-lived perennial, blanket flowers can come in colors from solid yellow, to red and yellow, to deep, rich mahogany.

The Yellow Blanket Flower, a native perennial of the desert southwest, has brilliant sunshine yellow ray flowers surrounding a dome or pom-pom shaped center full of densely packed rusty colored disk flowers.

The seeds are produced in the flower’s center, after the fertile disk flowers are pollinated. This always causes the pom-pom to swell to twice its size in preparation for seed dispersal.

Collecting a handful of seeds each fall to scatter in my yard ensures I can enjoy from home this happy flower’s bright color as they dance and sway in the spring winds.