Gaillardia Lutin

Gaillardia aristata x pulchella 'Lutin' ('elf') is, as its name suggests, a particularly compact gaillardia full of contagious cheerfulness. It offers two-tone and flamboyant flowering from June to September, in the form of red daisies widely surrounded by yellow, and centred on a beautiful rounded yellow and brown-red heart. The plant forms beautiful small clumps of stems and fuzzy green-grey foliage. This short-lived perennial has excellent resilience, tolerating cold, heat, drought, and poor, rocky soils, but hates excessive moisture. It is one of those almost foolproof plants which find their place in all gardens, regardless of their style!

Gaillardia aristata x pulchella is a horticultural hybrid resulting from the cross-breeding between Gaillardia aristata, a perennial native to the great central plains of North America, and Gaillardia pulchella, an almost annual plant native to northern Mexico and the south and centre of the United States. Belonging, like its two parents and like the sunflower, to the large family of Asteraceae, this hybrid has inherited from its first parent a beautiful hardiness and increased longevity, and from the second its extraordinary floriferousness, rapid growth, and extremely undemanding nature. The lovely 'Lutin' forms a clump of 30 to 40 cm (12 to 16in) in all directions, covered from June to September with large flower heads measuring 4 to 6 cm (2in), where pollinating insects gather. Like a colourful target, the flowering seems to be made up of concentric discs of different tones, from the yellow periphery to the brown-red centre at ripeness. The centre of the head is a rounded disc whose colour changes from the periphery to the centre, at the same time as the seeds form. The foliage, mainly basal, is composed of narrow, slightly lobed or deeply cut, fuzzy green-grey leaves.

A little outdated today, Gaillardias, along with Coreopsis grandiflora and other Gaura, are nevertheless among the champions in terms of floral abundance and an undemanding nature. Even the wild form G. aristata proves to be very floriferous. Their only flaw is their poor tolerance to stagnant moisture, even in well-drained soil. In gardens in warmer, more southern regions, especially in poor soils,  this plant is truly a bargain : it will accompany lavenders, perennial blood-red or ash geraniums, artemisias and grasses, which are equally frugal and floriferous plants. Its flowers hold up very well in bouquets.