I think I have spent way too much time worrying about these darn plants....but here goes.

I have a bunch..maybe a hundred or so.. of young phlox. They were only about an inch the end of august/early september and, while moving them into bigger and bigger containers, I've had many setbacks to yardwork/construction that kept me from being able to get them in the ground, At this point, they are in small containers (3" x maybe 5" deep - yea, these things haven't sprouted like I feel they should have) and I do not foresee them being able to get in the ground before spring due to the only open space being where the plow runs over the grass and tears it all up every winter.

Right now I am pulling them in and out every night, in these silly small pots, but I got messed up 2 nights in a row and 1 night the week before due to my schedule and they turned into plantsicles in their little pots. Prior to that they were a little iffy, but now they are mostly brown (the very tips of their stalks do have green growth for a small few, but it appears ti be remaining color as it doesn't look alive to me) and they are very rubbery. A good pull to their stalks will pull it out entirely very easily, minus their roots. The ones I did get in the ground look nothing like them.

That said, some of them seeded over the last 2 months and I do have some small, nice green sprouts in the same pots as the bigger brown ones.

are they salvageable? should I keep bothering? or should I put the time onto the other plants I 's pulling in and out and forget about these? I know phlox is very hardy as a plant but these guys haven't seemed to fit that bill over the last months.