but i'm now looking at a picture of an arizona sun and I love it!

wondering what is going wrong. I am a successful gardener for over 10 years, mostly I plant from seed or buy plants locally. My plants all thrive. Except for these.
actually these gaillardia were the first time I ordered plants thru the mail.

I think Bluestone is a reputable firm, so the problem must be something I'm doing. I followed the directions that came for planting.
Anyone have any experience with arizona sun? Are they particularly hard to grow? I wouldn't think so - gaillardia is generally not a delicate plant.

Could it be the soil? Gaillardia doesn't like clay, but clay is what I've got. so I add compost to break it up.

maybe I should add sand?

any suggestions appreciated.

btw right now I have a fan fare blaze which is beautiful. I bought it locally. shall see if it returns.

Biggest killer for Gaillardia is waterlogged winter soil. I have yet to lose one in my clay soil, but all clays are not created equally. Some drain reasonably well, some do not. I would test this first by putting some water in a 1ft by 1ft hole twice and see how long it takes the water to leave the hole completely the second time. If it is > 1 hr., you have problematic drainage.

Compost will improve the soil structure and aerate the soil and will improve drainage over time if mixed in with the existing soil. Also, make sure you don't have the crowns of the plants too low in the soil such that water pools around them. Never fertilize them either -- they hate it.

One anecdotal reason given for Gallardia's lack of staying power is that they flower themselves to death -- expending all their resources to flower prolifically right through the first frost instead of conserving energy to survive winter. There is no science behind this, just speculation. But, you may want to try cutting your Gaillardia back significantly in early fall, about 4-6 weeks before your first frost to force it to devote energy to strengthening itself to survive winter instead of flowering.

So, blazing sun, clay soil, no irrigation all seem to work for our Arizona Sun. If I'm not mistaken, the first few plants we planted were from Bluestone, but have added many more that I grew from seed. They bloom the first year from seed.