Phlox: Save A Space For It In Your Garden!

There is a variety of phlox to make any gardener happy whether he confines his efforts to dirt-dabbling in pots or really goes in for the aching labor of a large garden. Phlox can be grown as an annual or set out with the idea of creating a garden-pattern of beds, borders or an accentuating clump to be left from one season to the next.

It grows well in average soil, but, for a long blooming season to extend from very early spring until late fall, it needs fertilizer and mulching with straw-manure or peat moss to retain the moisture at the roots. An occasional allover drenching will greatly benefit the color of the flowers and general crisp structure of the plant. Phlox grows to different heights, depending on the variety planted; from annual ground creepers six inches high to the perennials—tall, erect or bushy and two, four and six feet from base to crown. The flowers, borne in profuse clumps crowning long stems are predominantly blue —seed from a plant bearing all red blooms will revert more to blue or lavender than red; however, red, pink, salmon, violet, buff, white and variegations are among the colors offered by this remarkable plant.

Phlox has a spicy fragrance unique to itself. Old flower clusters should be removed to encourage new blooms. By pinching out the tips of the new shoots once or twice during early summer, the blooming can be delayed until late in the year.

In addition to being a neat, brilliant, adaptable and strong growing garden citizen, phlox is very easily cultured. When grown from seed it produces some very interesting and unexpected effects in color and leaf structure. As the plants bloom so young there is little need to sow seed in flats indoors. Cover the seed half an inch deep in well-pulverized ground over a warm, sunny location. To produce mixed colors, try to get plants that bloom at the same height and season. To perpetuate a desired desired color, height or any other plant characteristic, propagate a root, stem or shoot cutting or division of the plant you wish duplicated. This can be done by planting small sections of the root or stem in a coldframe in August, to be set out as a transplant the following spring. Mature clumps can be lifted, the young thrifty sprouts separated from the outer edges and used as new plants. Each clump should have a space two or three feet across in which to spread out. With annual creeping phlox, a little loam sprinkled through the creepers will encourage them to root and these rooted sections make vigorous plants.

There is an annual and perennial variety of phlox. P. drummondii, the Texas annual is of shorter stature, easier culture and there are dozens of garden varieties that differ in stature, color, size and conformation of the flowers. The colors are mostly in the cyanic series and it will bloom from summer until frost if the faded flowers are picked and it is given plenty of food and moisture. P. paniculata and P. maculata, the summer perennial phloxes, take much more care and better growing conditions, but produce a great deal taller plants, larger and more beautiful blooms and have a wider choice of colors, such as red, purple, white, salmon and multi-colored.

If the mature plants are divided every two or three years it alleviates the danger of damp, crowded roots which foster powdery mildew, one of the worst pests of the phlox. In case mildew appears, dust immediately with commercial sulphur. When the weather is hot and dry and the phlox is not watered sufficiently, red spider will move into it. The plant will lose its crisp, look and small webby masses will appear among the stems. A stiff spraying with the hose, followed by plenty of sulphur dust will generally rout this pest.