How To Grow Phlox - Those Wonderful Perennial Flowers.

Phlox have always been popular with gardeners, because of their lovely colours and enchanting evening scent. Not only that, but they are also easy to grow.

However, there have been few developments in the border phlox world, since the 1950's. The good news is, that things have started to change. New varieties are now appearing, which have mildew intolerance, less height and beautiful variegated foliage.

The phlox we usually grow in our perennial flower gardens, are descendants of the American native Phlox paniculata. This can grow to around 6ft tall, but it is usually around the same height as our garden phlox. It tends to grow in dampish soil in partial shade and has pink flowers.

Because garden phlox are about 4ft tall, they need staking and this takes time and nowadays quite costly, as pea sticks are no longer readily available. Many gardeners have simply given up growing phlox, as they can't be bothered to do this. The new varieties, introduced by breeders over the past few years, are shorter.

Available in "series", the varieties are in groups of approximately the same height, but different colours and all flowering more or less at the same time.

You will find the
Cocktail Series - 16in
Flame Series - 19-24in
Volcano series - 24-28in
Junior series - 28in.

Growers always claim Phlox are mildew resistant, but there are so many strains of powdery mildew, that it is unlikely that a plant is resistant to them all. These new varieties are however much less troubled by mildew, then older varieties.

Until recently, there were only a couple of older varieties which had variegated foliage. But almost a dozen of these new ones have appeared. These variegated leaves, mean that the plants provide colour for months before they come into flower. You will meed to look out for:

Becky Towe - yellow edged leaves and carmine coloured flowers.

Frosted Elegance - white edged leaves and pink flowers.

Mary Christine - white edged leaves and pink flowers.

Pink Posie - white edged leaves and raspberry flowers.

Goldmine - gold edged leaves and magenta flowers.

Silvermine - gold edged leaves and white flowers

Rubymine - white edged leaves and dark-eyed pink flowers