Blanket Flower or "Blanketflower" is a stunning native perennial wildflower. The plant produces intricately colored petals of alternating red and yellow hues. Blanket Flower Seeds can be planted successfully anywhere in the USA, but this species is especially beloved in arid areas with limited drainage. Blanket Flower (Gaillardia pulchella) is also know as firewheel, Indian blanket, Indian blanketflower
To promote more blooms, Gaillardias should be deadheaded but in most areas they will bloom from summer into fall all on their own.
Leave the seed heads on your plants until all the color has faded and the seed head has dried to a mostly white hue. When the seed heads are sufficiently ripe and dry the perfect spheres start to shrink and you'll see dark circles in the seed head. When Gaillardia seed heads look like a dead dandilion you know the seeds are ready to collect. To save Gaillardia seed just pinch the seed head until it breaks apart and all the individual seeds come loose. Set the seeds in a cool dry location on a piece of paper to draw out any moisture from the seeds before storing them.
Gaillardia seeds, which are actually a fruit known as an achene, are rather sharp, so using gloves to harvest the seeds may be a good idea. Gaillardia will also self-seed readily and saving seeds isn't necessary, but it's good to have backup seeds in your seed bank and seed libraries just in case