Most people are familiar with the tall Phlox Flower that is the glory of the summer garden. The Phlox Flower has big clusters of red, pink, salmon, lavender, purple or white blossoms. Although they’re also a number of earlier and shorter varieties some less than a foot tall, they are well worth exploring. Phlox paniculata, the standard garden phlox, usually grows 2 ½ to 4 feet tall and looks best massed in large clumps of one color each.
Phlox Flower good varieties include the bright red “Starfire” pink “Dondo Hanbury Forbes” and salmon “ Sir John Falstaff, Carolina Phlox (P. Carolina or P. suffruticosa) slightly shorter, with looser flower clusters, and starts blooming earlier, usually the end of June. Miss Lingard is the common white variety, Rosalinde is pink.
Low growing Phlox Flower includes the spring-blooming wild blue phlox (P. divaricate), which prefers light shade; and moss pink (P. subulata) with pink, purple, red, or white blooms. Both are excellent as edging plants and in rock gardens. Well, to grow Phlox, you need all phlox like light, fertile soil with ample organic matter to retain moisture and good drainage.
You need to provide adequate air circulation around the plants by not crowing them. This will help to forestall the white mildew that often disfigures the leaves of the tall garden phlox; fungicides may also help. Divide clumps of tall varieties every few years, replanting the side shoots. Clumps also flower best when thinned to about five stems. Remove spent blooms to prevent plants from going to seed (Seedlings will all be magenta).
