PHENOMENAL. This is a 2001 AAS winner, which means it was trialed in 60+ locations in North America, and scored highly enough to get the award. Our trials are in Michigan, zone 5, and it is a great plant. Typical Gaillardia - doesn't like wet feet in the winter.

Thanks for that ringing endorsement globlugal.

(Although isnt it a 2011 AAS winner?)

lol - sorry :-) fat fingers....

UPDATE: I planted *many* (14) of these AA this past spring and all are still with us ;) and all are blooming. These are my first Gaillardia and so I have what may be an obvious observation:

Each individual flower looks really good for such a very short period of time. Of course this is compensated by the new blooms that quickly arise.

Is that par for the course for 'blanket flowers'?

Pretty much. But as you said they bloom so profusely it doesn't matter. Planted three of these this year and it's great. IMO even the flower heads are nice after petals are gone.

Thanks miclino for the confirmation.

By comparison the I have yet to see a single flower on my first year 'Tuscan Sun' sunflower look bad. From what I have seen of this plant thus far I will say it is outstanding...highly recommended.