I planted what seems like a zillion baby phlox plants 3-4 months ago. Most are growing, but are very leggy, rather than bushy. I know it is very early in my process, but I read that they are fast growers, and I thought I would have been able to see, at the very least, some small signs of spreading. Mine don't seem to be spreading at all. Do they spread under ground or above AND if the answer is above, then is my mulch preventing that from happening?

Any help from someone who has experience with phlox is greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your time and thoughts."

I posted this in the "groundcovers" forum and got some very helpful info from fellow member @mistascott. He suggested I post here too. I'm looking for any and all information I can gather up.

my gut tells me simply.. you have a lot of expectations for a perennial .. seeming to want it to grow like an annual.. say a petunia ... and cover ground fast ..

if its green.. alive.. what more do you want???? lol

otherwise.. you have provided no facts to work with..

full sun??

water protocol?

soil

variety??

mulch???

and especially a pic might really help ...

though i drive all over town and see them thriving everywhere .. especially at houses where you know a gardener does NOT live .... lol ... this is one plant.. i never perfected ... i wonder if drainage is a prime issue????

ken

And maybe I can pick up a few suggestions myself and try again....

Dee

This is a plant that took a long time to establish in my garden. It was so odd. I have it planted at the top of my rock retaining wall which should be perfect. For the first many years, it almost croaked each winter. The die-back was just horrible. Then - all of a sudden - no more die-back. Now I can barely keep it in check.

Kevin

"There is definitely some experimentation that you have to do with this, but from my limited experience moss phlox needs a decent amount of direct sun -- especially when they are blooming and growing in spring. So if under deciduous trees, you may be okay. I assume you live in North/Central Texas. I don't think the sun is so intense there that moss phlox would prefer less than full sun. The real test will be how profusely it flowers in the spring. If it is spotty with flowering, you will know it isn't getting enough light. I still think the plants are getting established and will turn their attention to spreading once the roots have gotten their act together."

As I recall, these plants are in a range of sun conditions from full sun to dappled shade (under trees). I think the biggest help for the OP would be other people's experiences with moss/carpet phlox and how quickly it establishes/spreads. I think the OP is concerned potentially that there is not enough light for it.

Personally, I have seen these take a good deal of neglect and thrive. I have also seen them doing reasonably well in partial shade. I was curious what others have experienced.

Ken, you do like question marks, don't you???? ;)
Let me see if I can cover all those questions, since I left so much out. Firstly, I honestly don't feel like I have "a lot of expectations for a perennial". What I said was "i thought that I would have been able to see, at the very least, some small signs of spreading" Now admittedly, I don't have much experience with gardening and, at times, am completely clueless as to what I can expect. In this case "clueless" really does explain it. I chose these plants based on what I could find about them on the internet...FAST growers, full sun to partial shade, soil unimportant, they would grow just about anywhere even being neglected. Not that I intended to neglect them, but hey let's be honest, that was a bonus. Lol. @mistascott did tell me that perennials will often spend their first year establishing their roots and will move on to the above ground stuff after that. Ok, now I know not to look for "at least some small signs of spreading" I was also concerned that my mulch could be impeding the spreading. Now on to answering those questions.
I have Phlox Subulata Candystripe, Sapphire Blue, and Scarlet Pink. They are planted in varying degrees of sunlight, from full sun to dappled sun. They are planted in 2 general locations, my front yard beds as a border and in a rock retaining wall in my backyard. The front beds original soil had some clay in it, so I amended it pretty heavily with organic compost and sand. The retaining wall in the back was not amended at all and I'd say that the soil there is a mix of some clay with lots of rocks and what I call "baseball field dirt". I'm sure it's called something but that's what it reminds me of. Lol, told you I'm new at this. I wouldn't call it sand because it isn't grainy like sand, but that might be exactly what it is. My mulch in the front is shredded hardwood. In the back, oh Lord who knows. Long story short, tornado did lots of damage, city mulched all the trees and gave it away by the truck load. It has a lot of pine in it because it smells like Pledge. HeeHee. A large percentage of it is shredded, but with larger nugget like chunks mixed in. It came at just the right time too since my retaining wall is 60 ft long. Whew, that would have been expensive!
Did I miss anything? Oh yes drainage and watering. Drainage is great and the sprinklers are set 3 days a week for 15 minutes and thoroughly cover all areas.

aachenelf...
Please excuse my my child like terminology. I have a toddler, what else can I say? "baby" to me is simply small and new. All the plants I purchased were in 3 in pots with roots developed. In fact, ridiculously bound.

I hope I covered everything. Many thanks to everyone contributing to my desire to gain info and experiences with these plants.

This one is on the edge of the bed.

This one is on the wall.

Reina