:D

You racist LOL!!

Phlox David doesn't like me. A couple years ago I tried it and it died. This year I put in a plant and it looked healthy and beautiful. Big fat blooms appeared. I was thrilled. Leaves started wilting and now David looks dead. I am puzzled--the old fashioned fuchsia-colored phlox is just blooming its heart out.

I adore David when he behaves. I had some magnificent plants when we lived in Chicago, a huge clump that looked like a beacon at night, and they attracted clearwing hummingbird moths, which was a delight.

Fast forward to our move to Kansas in 2007. I have planted garden phlox a half dozen times, in several locations, all with good amended soil. They up and die the same season. I can grow almost anything, but not phlox paniculata in Kansas. The neighbors next door? Theirs are gorgeous. I don't get it, but I've given up on them.

By the way, they are always MUCH nicer when you cut them back once or twice before they bloom. You get a more compact plant and many more blooms. Keep trimming them back for repeat blooms until frost.

I'm not big on white flowers either, especially on such a large plant.

What I do grow is Robert Poore. This plant has nver gotten a spot of mildew, never flops and it's hardy beyond belief. A couple of years ago, I moved one to a different garden and split the other two up. There are now Robert Poore's all over NJ!

This pcture is it just coming into bloom this year (July 15). The pcture doesn't really do it justice, it's a much louder pink in person.

{{gwi:256001}}

I forgot to prune it back early in the season (normally the deer do it for free, lol), so it's even taller than normal.

By the way, they are always MUCH nicer when you cut them back once or twice before they bloom. You get a more compact plant and many more blooms. Keep trimming them back for repeat blooms until frost.
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This is why I haunt this place. There is knowledge that just pops out of nowhere. What's well known to everyone else is just a revelation to me.

I normally cut back the front half of the plants to extend the bloom period as the trimmed portion blooms two weeks later. But then I didn't know how to deadhead them and they would do these scruffy blooms for the rest of the year. This year will be the whack attack, very satisfying.

Last year I had this 'Little Joe Pye' that grew five feet and sure wasn't little. Someone on here mentioned to cut it back in June to keep it more manageable. Eureka!

This year I have a very nice set of plants. I tell you that what is common knowledge to some, to others is a lightbulb moment. Thank you M/mama.

By the way, 'David' is very nice against a red brick wall. I use 'Eva Cullum' in front to soften the stark white. I imagine 'Blue Paradise' would work also, thus giving a cool look.

I love white Phlox, got both David and white cultivars of Phlox maculata (Flower power) and P. carolina (Miss Lingard) in the front garden. ( It might be too much white phlox in one area.)

My complaint is that sometimes these Phloxes get strange wilts and the foliage starts turning yellow and stalks die back. This year it's much worse because of the super hot dry weather we've had for the past almost 3 weeks. I've watered them several times, but that's simply not enough in this weather for them to look lush.

Now the town has implemented an outdoor watering restriction so I can't possibly keep up with all the gardens, so I focus on veggie and butterfly/hummingbird plants. Just like the grass is browning out, parts of the gardens are going to look like crap. I'm even thinking about cutting blooms back prematurely on some perennials so they can reserve their resources.

I'm the contrarian here... :-) I love white! And I love Phlox 'David' too but am thinking about replacing some of it with that hydranea 'Bobo' because the phlox seeds around a lot and I have too much of it now. 'Bobo' looks like it wiould give me the look I want but eliminate the seeding problem. One of the reasons I like the 'David' is that it repeats the look of the big 'White Moth' hydrangeas along the garage in a shorter form in the main front bed so it 'connects' the fore/midground front bed to the background garage bed. This is not a good picture and the phlox are just starting to bloom but I think you can see what I mean... (And you can also see that the front garden is ...ahem... becoming a bit overgrown and in need of an overhaul....!)
{{gwi:256002}}

I have many varieties of phlox along a long mixed border fence where I also grow annuals, roses, perennial grasses, Filipendula, Echinacea, daylilies, and some shrubs. Besides P. David, I have Eva C., Blue Paradise, Starfire, Orange Perfection, Blue Boy, Laura and others with names I've forgotten. I love the fact that David helps to cool down and unify the riot of pastels. Though I agree with Idabean that he looks better in the back because of his height and the fact that he blooms later than some other varieties.

I say, to each, his or her own! I sure would hate to see everyone's gardens looking like mine --- how boring!

Well, I have White Admiral. Never gets mildew, is not overpowering in the border, and if you don't deadhead it will bloom AGAIN on the same flowerheads. Try it.

I hoped I would provoke people.
I cut back all my phloxes before they bloom, then dead head promptly to get the side plooms. I love Eva Cullum and Bright Eyes.
I do want to get some early whites, because I, too, love white in the garden. Somehow, I didn't get around to it this year. Any white phlox except David has to be mail ordered. I once had phlox Alpha or Omega (one is white) and it did not mildew. That was back in day before David.
Boday, do you have Tracey di-Staubo Aust's book, The Well-Tended Perennial Garden (people help me out here if I have either the name or title wrong). ?
She has invaluable information on how to prune, pinch and prick-out plants for height, shape,bloom time, re-bloom, rejuvenation and whatever else.
Maybe you can find it used on Amazon or at the library. Please don't wait to get for a Christmas present!
It has been the most useful gardening book I own, and I have three shelves full and been gardening for 25 years.
It is interesting to think that a HYDRANGEA can be comparable to a phlox. It is much richer image for comparison in garden terms, and catches the problem of scale (as in comparative size) vividly.
Yep, this website is amazing. It has had its ups and downs, it has had infuriating glitches and occasionally infuriating trolls; it has been boring and repetitive as well. But I keep coming back to it and reading and learning.There's always something.....
marie/idabean

Marie Ida

No, I don't, worse luck. Obviously I need it. Thanks for the suggestion. I had given up on gardening books as most of them fell far beneath the promised results.

Most of the information I have is listening to older gardeners talk about their experiences. Well that, and now that I'm older I have experiences of my own.

Idabean, thanks for the book suggestion. I just ordered it from Barnes and noble!
I'm a newbie gardener and there's only so much advice I can find via google ;-)

I second the suggestion of the "Well Tended Perenial Garden". The first garden I ever planted I did following her exact instructions on amending the soil. Everything grew like gangbusters.