Through the Lens Perennials: Creeping phlox....Back cover

1. E-mail 2 or 3 of your best garden photos to: photos@MichiganGardener.com.

We are looking for photos of your garden, both wide-angle and plant close-ups.

Be sure to e-mail a high-resolution file. 2. Please include your full name and a caption describing the scene and the plants.

“This is my circle garden that I built for Michigan native plants for pollinators. It brings me hours of joy watching and photographing the pollinators that visit.” —Lynn O’Shaughnessy Tricia Hoen photographed this rose, one of many in her garden.

www.PerennialResource.com

Mountainside ‘Crater Lake’

www.PerennialResource.com

‘Bedazzled Lavender’

Creeping phlox is a collective name for any number of phlox species and hybrids that have a creeping or stoloniferous habit. In horticulture, the name is generally used to refer to several species of spring-blooming phlox which vary quite a bit from one another, primarily Phlox subulata, P. stolonifera, P. divaricata, and their cultivars and hybrids.

To add confusion to the name game, the various types of creeping phlox may go by different common names in different regions of the country. Here in the Midwest, when people refer to creeping phlox, they most likely mean Phlox subulata, which is also called moss phlox due to its very low-growing habit. This species, and its many varieties, is the type of creeping phlox most widely used in gardens and landscapes. In the East and Southeast, the name creeping phlox is likely to mean Phlox stolonifera, which is native to the Eastern seaboard and Appalachian states.

Phlox divaricata is another type of spring-blooming phlox with a creeping habit that is native to an even greater number of states, including quite a few west of the Mississippi. It is most often referred to as woodland phlox, wild blue phlox, or wild sweet William (no relation to the dianthus of the same name).

For years, the world of creeping phlox remained very stable. One might even call it static, due to a lack of new cultivars for many decades. Gardeners love the explosion of spring color provided by Phlox subulata, but most garden centers stock the same varieties year after year. The range of available colors includes all shades of pink, from pale to magenta, plus lavender, purple, and white, including bicolors with contrasting centers or “eyes.” Examples of some popular older-era varieties include, but are not limited to, ‘Emerald Blue,’ ‘Emerald Pink,’ ‘Drummond’s Pink,’ ‘Millstream Daphne,’ ‘Purple Beauty,’ ‘Red Wing,’ ‘Snowflake,’ and ‘White Delight.’

These traditional cultivars continue to dominate the marketplace, but recently, new interspecific hybrids (crosses between species) have appeared on the scene. Most are hybrids of Phlox subulata and lesser-known phlox species that are not usually sold on their own. These new hybrids provide additional noteworthy characteristics such as less aggressive habit, neater more refined appearance, extended bloom time, and in some