Karen

I love phlox. So do the deer that visit my garden beds nightly. I learned last year that their grazing this time of year is not such a bad thing really - -- the nip off the very top grow tips and the plants get fuller and wider in response. By the time they are ready to flower, the deer have usually moved on. Hoping thats true this year! With so many people around here putting up deer fencing, they damage is concentrated in the yards of those of us who do not have it.

Are they blooming right now? If so I expect they are Dame's Rocket. They look a lot like phlox but most tall phlox bloom
in July and later. My rocket carries itself on but does not
always come up in the same place. Some of it acts biennial.
Grows one year, blooms the next and dies and reseeds.

They often grow along country roads or paths. They are not
native to western hemisphere but a nice legend I've heard is
that the Mayflower settlers brought the seeds with them and
they have naturalized. I enjoy them when they grow in the
"right" place and pull them up if it's the wrong place. Enough of them come back.

Chris