![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Plant breeders have even created orange cultivars, though they never look like real phlox to me. Bi-colors, especially those with a bright central “eye”, are longtime favorites. The name is plain, but the plant is elegant, growing two to four feet tall, with elongated, alternate leaves and glowing flowers in shades ranging from white to deep rose, red, blue-purple and purple. Unlike many other native plants, Phlox paniculata has not attracted a host of colorful nicknames and remains known to the world as plain “garden phlox.” Each of those panicles is composed of scores of five-petaled, tubular flowers. Phlox paniculata, acquired its Latin species name from its large, showy flower panicles or terminal flower clusters. This is why many old gardens in the same area also have the same phlox varieties. Out in the country, eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth century farm wives probably did not have the opportunity to pick from a plethora of varieties, but relied on divisions provided by relatives or friends. When I think about that, I am astounded by the plethora of available choices, but also wonder if some of those 800 varieties looked so similar that they were indistinguishable from each other. By the mid to late nineteenth century, there were over 800 named selections of phlox on the market. The species still blooms today in Bartram’s restored garden. The first written description of Phlox paniculata was made by Philadelphia nurseryman and plant collector John Bartram in 1737. James Sherrard, apothecary and plant collector. By the early eighteenth century, it had traveled to England and in 1730 it was reportedly blooming there in the garden of Dr. American settlers no doubt encountered wild Phlox paniculata shortly after arriving on this continent. The ancestors of today’s plants were native to North American and occurred naturally from New York State south to Georgia and as far west and south as Illinois and Arkansas. In the case of garden phlox, you can make more every year or two by splitting an established clump, either as it emerges in spring, or after it blooms in early fall. Why have these two garden stalwarts persisted? Alluring beauty and fragrance are great attributes, but perhaps equally important, they are tough, easy to grow, and quite easy to propagate. Out in the country, near my family’s summer cottage in Central New York State, gardens worth their salt always feature two plants-a lilac by the back door for spring and a big patch of phlox for mid to late summer. There is nothing wrong with impatiens, but a well-established clump of brilliantly colored phlox is a dramatic and heartening site. This is probably because it is long on easy to grow annuals like impatiens. Strange to say, the suburb where I live is somewhat short on phlox. At high summer, no respectable flower garden should be without garden phlox or Phlox paniculata. ![]()
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