Arizona Apricot Blanket Flower Seeds

All-America Selections (AAS) Winner 2011

The latest in the amazing early-blooming, compact Sun series is this exquisite pastel blend of apricot and yellow, a never-before-seen color mix for the Gaillardia family. Arizona Apricot is a marvel of a plant, its blooms exquisite, its hardiness and adaptability unsurpassed, and its size compact yet free-flowering. We highly, highly recommend it for your sunny border and best containers.

Apricot sets 3- to 3½-inch blooms with several layers of long, pointed petals. Each petal is apricot from the base to about ⅔ of the way to the tip, which is bright yellow. They petals surround a huge central cone combining amber, gold, and green. The flowers begin appearing in early summer and continue well into autumn. Simply incredible.

The Arizona series is the very first Gaillardia from seed not to require a vernalization (chilling) period. You can plant these seeds in spring and see blooms just a few months late. And the plant is so compact—just 12 inches high and wide, with great branching. Given sunshine and any well-drained soil, it's off and running.

Arizona Apricot is a selection of the native species, so it has all the vigor you would expect of a wildflower. Tolerant of heat, humidity, drought, cold, and poor soil, once established in your garden it will be long-lived and trouble-free. And it's hardy just about everywhere in the continental U.S. Truly, there are few perennials that can equal its performance.

If you like Apricot (and you will), try the other Arizona's as well—Red Shades and Sun. They are absolutely beautiful together, and make great companions to Echinacea, Rudbeckia, and other natives. You can grow an entire sunny perennial border for pennies from seed using these very long-lived, easy varieties.

Do grow this All America Selection Winner this season. No other flower in the garden equals its combination of beauty and vigor. Prepare to be delighted.