'Fanfare'
Blanket Flower
"Where have all the flowers gone
Long time passing
Where have all the flowers gone
Long long time ago
Where have all the flowers gone?
Girls have picked them every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?"
-Pete Seeger,
b. 1919
b. 1919
Gaillardia x grandiflora 'Fanfare' is a hybrid Blanket Flower, a cross between G. aristata & G. pulchella. It was developed in Sussex & first marketed through the Farplants nursery collective in the UK. It is only quite recently (in 2003) available in the USA, but by 2005 already something of a standard offering in independent Northwest nurseries.During its first field trials, it was already being rumored for release in 2005, but performed so well & had such obvious commercial possibilities that it was fast-tracked for production. The target date for release in the USA was July 2003, but it turned up a month sooner than that in a local nursery, & I obtained two gallon pots of it at first sight.
It was first discovered by Richard Reed in 1997 as a sport of the hybrid cultivar G. x grandiflora 'Dazzler,' itself a recipient of the Award of Garden Merit. Its sport appeared spontaneously in a garden in Pagham, West Sussex (anything from Pagham has just got to end up in Paghat's Garden too).
My first two clumps died out of the garden after one good year. I'd perhaps had them in much too rugged & dry a location, for even drought-tolerant plants have their limitations, but I was never quite sure why they didn't perennialize well. Presently there is a patch planted not in the Garden of Paghat but at SinLur Gardens, in a sunny spot that gets moderate watering in well-draining organically rich soil.
'Fanfare' possesses vibrant, large (over three inches), & rather strange flowers. Gaillardia blossoms give the general impression of unusually bright pumped-up daisies, & 'Fanfare' is more than usually bright. On closer examination, one realizes that each radiating petal is actually a distinct trumpet-flower.
In Northwest gardens it begins blooming by June, & continues until first frost of September or October. As each flower ages & drop their petals, there remains a coneflower-like seedhead which has its own charm, & can be snipped off as they wear out to keep the clump reflowering.
The clumps grow a foot or a foot & a half tall, & will spread about as wide. They are sufficiently cold-hardy to be grown down to zone 6, or 5 with winter mulching & protection.