odSteve
Cool Member
Posts: 68
Joined: Mon May 31, 2021 12:35 am

The tale of two Gaillardia from cuttings

Hi, I have what I think is a Gaillardia. It just popped up in my side yard a few years ago. I didn't take much note of it at first. The second year it came up again so it's a perennial and it got my attention. At the time I did not know anything about it, except it grew well in my area without attention and would look great if I had lots more of them.

So towards later in the season I broke off two stems and put them in a glass of water on my window sill. And they both eventually grew roots! But with winter approaching I did not want to put them outside. So they sat in water all winter in my window. I have very long, harsh winters. One eventually died. In spring I put the other in a new garden bed in my front yard. All summer it grew a little bit but did not do much. The plant looked misshapen and had one very poor looking flower. And it died back in winter. I was not sure if it would come back as it looked so unhealthy all summer. This spring it came back growing normal and very strong and now has several flower buds about to open.

Therefore I intend to take lots more cuttings from my original Gaillardia this summer for future plants. I've read Gaillardia can be propagated by seed or by dividing them but I would like to add they can also be propagated by cuttings. I did not use a knife or shears to cut but ripped the two stems off the plant. I've read that is the way to get evergreen cuttings to grow roots because of the injury, so that might be why my Gaillardia cuttings grew roots.
Just thought I'd share.

odSteve
Cool Member
Posts: 68
Joined: Mon May 31, 2021 12:35 am

Here is a picture of the original Gaillardia in the upper left corner of the picture of the raised vegetable garden bed I am building.
If you are certain of the type of plant this is, please let me know.
Thank you.

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