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If it’s fall, it’s time to get blanket flowers ready for the chill that winter brings. Grab your pruners, a shovel and a few more tools and let’s go!
Red blanket flowers (Gaillardia grandiflora Arizona Red Shades or Burgundy), with their 4-inch wide daisy-like flowers, add pops of deep, rich color to the garden.
The red blanket flower plant grows to 12 inches in height with a 14-inch spread and bursts into bloom when the weather warms in the spring and continues until it cools in late fall. Caring for all blanket flowers in the fall is easy when grown within U.S. Department of Agriculture Hardiness zones 3 through 10. (Find your growing zone here).
How to prune the blanket flower in the fall
You will need the following equipment:
Cut the red blanket flower plant back to 6 inches in height in late summer or early fall.
How to divide blanket flowers
Divide the red blanket flower every two years, in the fall. Division isn’t as scary as it sounds and, believe it or not, plants that require it do just fine.
The first step is to cut the foliage to 6 inches.
Then, grab your shovel and dig a circle completely around the plant about 4 inches away. I just insert the shovel and shove it down. Then I do that again right next to and connected to the first one and so on until there is a circle all the way around the blanket flower plant.
Insert the shovel into one of the previous points and pull back on the handle gently. It should start to lift from the soil. You may need to do this in several spots around the plant, depending on the size of the rootball. Shake excess soil from the roots.
Lay the plant down on a flat surface and use your hands to pull it apart. If that doesn’t work, use the garden knife to cut the plant’s rootball into sections. Each section should have its own roots and the size should be comparable to a gallon-sized plant you would purchase at a gardening center
Plant the divisions immediately to avoid dry roots. Dig the planting holes the same depth at which the plant was formerly growing and three times as wide. Place the newly-divided roots into the hole and fill it with soil.
Water the transplanted red blanket plants until the top 6 inches of soil is wet. Apply a 4-inch layer (more is better) of mulch around the base of the blanket flower to protect it from frost. Straw, pine needles, dead leaves or wood mulch from a garden supply store are ideal sources of mulch.
