Sunset Flowers

I've written about these flowers before, how when I lived in Valley Junction and inherited a yard full of gorgeous flowers, I didn't know what these were, nor particularly liked them. My neighbor Berniece told me they were Gaillardia so that is the name I've always called them. They are a member of the sunflower family and their common name is Blanket Flower.
The flowers I have where I live now are not from plants I had years ago, I did not move any starts of them. I got the flowers I have now, clandestinely, from an empty lot down the street. Where once I was indifferent to them, I now love their cheery, bright faces and have learned they have yet another name.

There once was a child in a garden,
Who loved all my colours of  flame,
The crimson and scarlet and yellow --
But what was my name?

For Gaillardia's hard to remember!
She looked at my yellow and red,
And thought of the gold and the glory,
When the sun goes to bed;

And she troubled no more to remember,
But gave me a splendid new name;
She spoke of my flowers as Sunsets --
Then you do the same!

There were 170 illustrations of Flower Fairies, created by Cicely Mary Barker, when they were first published in 1923. Each botanically accurate illustration included a poem or verse dedicated to the Flower Fairy.

I knew as soon as I saw one of them awhile back that I had seen them before and forgotten them. But once I looked them up and saw all the lovely illustrations, I was enchanted all over again.
In addition to her own books, Ms. Barker illustrated many other children's books and sold watercolors and pastels.

Whether you call them Sunset Flowers, Blanket Flowers or Gaillardia, they will always be Gaillardia to me. And they will always remind me of my neighbor, Berniece.