Okay, I admit to stupidity, and I'm going to need some help.
Last year I bought some 1 gallon
Gaillardia. They (inadvertently) got left out in the 1 gallon pots, and this spring I had one survivor. (No, I do not explicitly recall what the cultivar was.)
The pot hung around (getting watered) until I finally decided that it liked the spot where it was (right on the edge of the patio) - it just needed to be in the ground. And it needed a companion!
As things happen, last week when I was at the Full Moon sale my favorite nursery was running, I snagged the last pot of what I
recall was
Galliardia 'Oranges & Lemons'. (Unfortunately the plant was lumped in as one of the "perennials" on the receipt. I have had 'Oranges & Lemons' in the past and liked it, and thought that that was what the surviving plant from last year was.)
Today was planting day, for which I had some help. I removed the label from one or the other pot (I forget which) of
Gaillardia, thinking that both of them were 'Oranges & Lemons'. The ground got dug up, and both plants planted (by my help) at the edge of the patio, where they look fabulous.
But.
After the plants were in the ground, and I went to fertilize and water them in, I noticed that the two plants (both of which I thought were 'Oranges & Lemons') are different.
Uh-oh.
One has green foliage, and the yellow on the petal tips is a bit larger than on the other plant. The other has blue-green foliage, and the yellow on the petals covers a smaller area at the tips. Apart from the amount of yellow, the color on the flowers is very similar. (The latter plant had an 'Arizona Apricot' label stuck into the soil nearby, placed by my helper (who may have stuck it by the wrong plant).)
I went pawing through some labels which I had plucked from various pots (of things dead or alive) about ten minutes earlier, and I did find a label for 'Oranges & Lemons'. So... it appears that that plant did come into this garden (either last year or last week), as well as the 'Arizona Apricot'.
From my online research, both Monrovia and Missouri Botanical gardens state that 'Oranges & Lemons' has blue-green foliage. (Yet perennials.com says that the foliage is "light green"!) All America Selections states that 'Arizona Apricot' (a seed strain and 2011 AAA Flower Award Winner) has green foliage.
Various pictures that I have seen online seem to suggest that the flower with the smaller amount of yellow matches 'Oranges & Lemons'. (It is unclear re the blooms of 'Arizona Apricot', and being a seed strain, I would expect some variability anyway.)
I suppose that I could try to find another plant (of either) at the other local nurseries, though I doubt that I would have much success. 'Oranges & Lemons' is said to be sterile, so I suppose I could also try to see which seeds (would 'Oranges & Lemons' even
make seeds?) germinate. (That's not really a project that I want to take on, though.)
What I am basically asking for, from those who may have grown one or the other plant, is help/confirmation and a sanity check as to which plant is which (as the flowers are similar in color). Is the one with the blue-green foliage 'Oranges & Lemons'?
Thanks for any help. Pictures follow.
cropped picture taken last week of the new plant, along with other nursery sale booty (the picture is not as helpful as I had hoped, but I think the foliage maybe looks blue-green)
picture of both the newly planted Gaillardia
picture of the bloom and foliage of the plant on the left (maybe 'Arizona Apricot'?)
picture of the bloom and foliage of the plant on the right (maybe 'Oranges & Lemons'?)
