Garden phlox is one of the better known native plants, popular even among traditional gardeners. Over the years, many cultivars became available on the market. Nearly a decade ago, Mt. Cuba completed their study on the phloxes for sun. You’re likely familiar with the winners, as they’re frequently sold in nurseries and plant sales today.
The seed-grown, open-pollinated garden phlox in my nursery may come from the offspring of some of those cultivars. Today, garden phlox is naturalized throughout a large portion of Jenkins Arboretum. Due to their explosive seeds, they naturalize quite readily, providing deer don’t have access to them. Deer don’t eat all phloxes in my experience, but this is one that I need to continue spraying, especially once they begin to bloom. For whatever reason, they really enjoy the flower buds on this one (but will generally leave the rest alone).
I don’t know what color these will be once they reach blooming size. The ones in Jenkins are a wide range of pinks, lavenders and white. These could be any combination of those. I know this may not help with planning a color scheme, but they aren’t difficult to move if it doesn’t work. However, as Bob Ross once put it, “We don’t make mistakes. We have happy accidents.” I take more of a Bob Ross approach to gardening, and the results are often better than anything I could’ve planned.
Garden phlox are prone to getting powdery mildew mid-summer, especially with poor air circulation. This plant needs a little room to breathe. Powdery mildew isn’t usually any cause for concern and is fairly common among many plants. If your plant gets hit a bit harder than usual, you can use a fungicide and consider moving the plant in fall/early spring to a different location in the garden.
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