Wildflower Wednesday: Summer Blooming Phlox

I've been waiting for the summer Phlox to bloom. The garden seems to come alive when the various shades of pink, magenta and white pop open. They bloom in full sun, part sun and even shade.

this cross has the brightest eyes that may have come form P' Laura'

The first Phloxes in this garden were here when I arrived. They were the offspring of whatever the previous gardeners might have planted 35+ years ago and were all wonderful magenta flowered beauties. Many of those original plantings are still here. The offspring of the offspring are here and after years of letting species and cultivars go to seed, real treasures have been produced in the crossings of the crossings.

Over the years I've added others, including a few hybrids. The ones that have survived and thrived are in bloom right now.

Here's Phlox 'David' which is a stunning white. There are  several groupings of pure white seedlings, none that I planted.

Phlox 'Jeana' has smaller flowers than other summer phlox, but she's big on nectar and draws the most pollinators.

Phlox 'Wanda' blooms all summer if deadheaded. You have to love that in a flower and yes, bees do visit this hybrid.

An unknown seedling from a cross.

Another unknown cross in a luscious color.

Some of the seedlings are brightly colored and others are pale pinks.

All of them are beautiful to me.

Practically Perfect Pink Phlox pilosa demonstrating butterfly attracting qualities

Phlox flowers are the classic butterfly plant with  landing pads of deliciousness (flared petals), a narrow tube that is accessible to the long proboscis of butterflies and fragrant flowers that occur in loose, rounded clusters. The long bloom time means there's plenty of nectar for pollinator visitors from July into August. I've seen butterflies, skippers, bumblebees, Minor bees, carpenter bees, flower flies and Snowberry Clearwing Moth visiting. I've read that Hummers visit as well and I hope they might stop by, too.

Phlox has all the characteristics of a classic butterfly nectar flower.

• clustered flowers with a landing platform
• brightly colored
• open during the day
• ample nectar producer 
• nectar deeply hidden in corolla

If you want to attract butterflies, moths, skippers and other pollinators to your garden, then plant more Phlox! That's what I've been doing. Phlox paniculata 'Jeana' was planted several years ago and she rocks as a butterfly magnet. I add at least one plant a year, more if I can find them in 3 inch pots. They do better in spring planting if they're smaller.

These moths hover and stabilize their flight by resting their front legs on P 'Jeana's' blossom

But, right now I am wondering what happened to all the butterflies that usually flock to my Phloxes?

There have been rare sightings this spring/summer. I just saw a Yellow Sulphur on the Partridge pea and the Phlox, but it zipped by too fast to pose for a photo. Yesterday, a  Swallowtail was nectaring on  'Jeana'.

 It's been disappointing and disconcerting to say the least. Here we are in  the fourth week in July and the butterflies and skippers are missing in action. I'm not alone in this wondering what's going on, other gardeners have been asking "Where have  the butterflies have gone?" Thankfully, Phlox are able to do their thing despite the missing butterfly.

What is their thing?

Looking pretty! Well, that's a given, but..

P paniculata sps

More importantly, Phlox provides nectar for pollinators during this critical time.

Critical time!

Yes, critical! Mid-to-late summer is usually one of the toughest times for nectar and pollen-feeding insects. Plants like Phlox are very important producers of nectar.

Nectar robbing Carpenter bee

That's good to know. Is there anything else you can tell me about phlox?

I don't think one can have too many Phlox

I'm glad you asked!

Phloxes are native to North America and found growing in diverse habitats from the coldest alpine tundras to prairies, woodlands and meadows. With over 65 different species in North America there are options for many habitats.

They're all beautiful and fragrant.

Phlox will grow in partial shade or full sun~

Phlox paniculata sps and cultivars love moist, rich, well draining soil and flower best in full sun. What they get here is shallow, summer dry, clay soil that's been amended with leaf mold and compost. I do give them a nice big drink if we don't get rain. If you can keep them relatively moist and provide decent drainage you'll have good success (hardiness zones 3 to 8) and keep the pollinators well supplied with nectar.

More robbing!

If you want to see what kind of offspring you can get from all the cross pollination that will be happening, then don't deadhead your plants, let them go to seed and self sow. The parent plants always bloom true, but seedlings will be a pleasant surprise of mixed colors for your garden.

P paniculata 'David' and unknown mother= A pleasant pinkish surprise.

Isn't this seedling adorable? I need to remember to thank the pollinators! 
xoxogail

7-25-2020 Spicebush swallowtail! So excited!

The particulars
Botanical name: Phlox paniculata
Common Name: garden phlox, summer phlox
Family: Polemoniaceae  
Type: Herbaceous perennial
Native Range: Eastern United States
Zone: 4 to 8
Height: 2.00 to 4.00 feet
Spread: 2.00 to 3.00 feet
Bloom Time: July to September
Bloom Description: Pink-purple to white
Sun: Full sun to part shade
Water: Medium
Maintenance: Medium
Flower: Showy, Fragrant Attracts: Birds, Hummingbirds, Butterflies
Tolerate: Deer, Clay Soil, Black Walnut

Phlox Wanda. (info/source)
Phlox hybrid ‘Wanda’
Type: Herbacious perennial
Family: Polemoniaceae 
Native range: same as Summer phlox
Zone: Hardy in zones 5-10
Size: 18" to 24″
Bloom: Spring through summer, deadhead for continued bloom
Bloom description: Bright pink flowers
Water: requires moist well-drained soil
Maintenance: deadhead
Sun: Full sun and semi shade 
Comments: Wanda is thought to be a hybrid, and some speculate that the genes of Phlox divaricata might be in there along with P. pilosa. The plentiful flowers are a strong fuchsia, perhaps magenta, and may vary a bit on whether you place her in full sun or partial shade.  (info/source)
Tolerant: Heat and humidity tolerant

Phlox paniculata 'Jeana' 
Type: Herbacious perennial
Family: Polemoniaceae 
Native range: same as Summer phlox
Zone: Hardy in zones 5-10
Size: 5′ tall beauty
Bloom description: impressive floral display and fragrant
Bloom: from mid-July through early September.
Maintenance: Water when droughty
Sun: Full sun
Comments: This cultivar was discovered growing along the Harpeth River near Nashville, Tennessee and named after its discoverer, Jeana Prewitt. ‘Jeana’ attracted more butterflies than any other garden phlox in the entire  Mt. Cuba trial. With a top rank in both horticultural and ecological evaluations, Phlox paniculata ‘Jeana’ is hard to beat. (source)

Disease/insects: PS The biggest problem I have had has been an attack of Phlox Bug~A nasty creature that sucks the plant juices and disfigures the plant. I cut the plant back after the first frost and trash the stalks....Never composting them. Phlox bug over winters in the stalks and this takes care of most of them. You can read about my battle with them here.

Posts about Phlox
Nectar Robbers are at it again
Early Summer Pollinator magnets
Summer Phlox

Welcome to Clay and Limestone's Wildflower Wednesday celebration. I am so glad you stopped by. WW is about sharing and celebrating wildflowers from all over this great big, beautiful world. Join us on the fourth Wednesday of each month. Remember, it doesn't matter if they are in bloom and, it doesn't matter if we all share the same plants. It's all about celebrating wildflowers. Please leave a comment when you add your url to Mr Linky.

Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.

Wordless Wednesday: Last and First

The last of the summer Phlox and the first of the woodland ex-asters, both stalwart wildflowers at Clay and Limestone. I can't imagine gardening without either of them. This may be the only photo I have of an ex-aster without pollinators!

xoxogail

PS I think one of the ex-asters will be the October Wildflower Wednesday star (October 24, 2018).

Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.

2015 Wildflower Wednesday Roundup

Welcome to the 2015 Wildflower Wednesday Roundup! 

Wildflower Wednesday is about sharing wildflowers no matter where you garden~the USA, the UK, Europe, Australia, Africa, South America, India or the coldest reaches of Canada. It doesn't matter if we sometimes show the same plants, how they grow and thrive in your garden is what matters most. I hope you join the celebration...It's always the fourth Wednesday of the month!

Without further ado, here are the best and brightest of Clay and Limestone's 2015 wildflowers.

January: Crossvine

 Bignonia capreolata is a vigorous, vine that climbs by branched tendrils and has attractive trumpet shaped flowers in early spring and summer. In my neck of the woods, it is more often seen scrambling 30 to 50 feet up the trunk of a canopy tree on its way to the top and sunshine. You might not notice it during the summer, it has deep green leaves that get lost, but, if you see a trumpet shaped flower lying on a path~stop and look up, the flowers will be blooming at the top of the tree. blooms in the early summer at the tops of the trees in my garden.

It  has much to show for itself all winter long when the evergreen leaves take on a reddish to deep burgundy hue that brightens up a mostly brown winter garden.

 February: 5th anniversary for Wildflower Wednesday

It's hard to believe that 5 years have passed since the first Wildflower Wednesday meme post. I want to thank each of you for joining me on my continuing journey to create the best wildlife garden possible and for sharing your posts with me. At first I wasn't sure what I wanted to do to celebrate this special anniversary and then it occurred to me that I could share that first official Wildflower Wednesday post with some updated text and photos. So that's what I've done.

 March: Spicebush
 Lindera benzoin is one of the earliest blooming trees in my garden. I love how the sulphur yellow flowers  light up the dark corners of the woodland. It's a wonderful small understory tree and you'll find it on my list of perfect native plants. Lindera benzoin ought to be in more gardens. It's easy to care for, good looking and has great wildlife value...Don't go looking for fancy cultivars, as far as I know there are none. Seriously, a tree like this doesn't need to be "improved", it's already perfect!

April: Dogwood

Flowering dogwood is the most popular understory tree in my part of the gardening world! I have several in my front garden and my favorite grows in the shade of a Bur oak and several Shagbark hickories. It has the most appealing and graceful tiered and horizontal branching and the lower limbs tickle the Golden ragwort and Mayapples growing beneath it. If you're going to add one to your garden don't plant it in the middle of the lawn, instead, plant them in the shade of a taller canopy tree to give them the dappled light they prefer. Let those lower limbs alone and smother the lawn with newspapers covered with decomposing leaves (or pinestraw). Then plant spring ephemerals and other shade loving wildflowers. Voila, just like that, you have a woodland wildflower garden. All from one understory tree!

May: Goat's Rue

It's Tephrosia virginiana also known as Goat's Rue and it's our Wildflower Wednesday star of the month. It has fuchsia pink, creamy white and yellow blooms that resemble sweet peas and are striking against the silvery stems and leaves. I am delighted and surprised that it is blooming in my garden. It is said to prefer sandy, loamy, acidic soil and as you all know that is no where near a good description of the soil at Clay and Limestone! It's been  growing nicely for the last two years on the rocky edge of the Susan's Garden and the asphalt driveway. A taprooted plant, it's anchored itself firmly into the ground, so I must be doing something right to make this beauty happy!

June: Embrace imperfection!

When you commit to a pesticide free garden you have to be prepared for chewed on petals and foliage. Are you ready to embrace imperfection? You won't be sorry when you do. Bees, butterflies, skippers, beetles and hoverflies will move into your garden. It will be alive with critters. Your garden will not be magazine perfect, but, pollinators don't care if your flower petals are chewed on. Pollinators need flowers bursting with pollen and nectar. Your garden will be teeming with life. Spiders will build webs, the beneficial insects will keep aphids in check, pollinators will pollinate and, birds will hunt the insects.

It will be a beautiful imperfect garden, just as it's supposed to be.

 July: Summer Phlox

I count on the different species of Phlox for several seasons of delightful color starting in early spring. The first Phloxes in this garden were here when I arrived. They were the offspring of whatever the previous gardeners might have planted 30+ years ago and were all wonderful magenta flowered beauties. The offspring of the offspring are still here and after years of letting species and cultivars go to seed, real treasures have been produced in the crossings of the crossings.

Butterflies, moths (including Hummingbird and Sphinx moths) and skippers are the primary pollinators of phlox. Their proboscis are long enough to reach the nectar at the base of the narrow phlox corolla and pollen is carried to the next flower.

Phlox has all the characteristics of a classic butterfly nectar flower.

• clustered flowers with a landing platform
• brightly colored
• open during the day
• ample nectar producer 
• nectar deeply hidden in corolla

I decide every year to plan more Phloxes! This summer I did!

 August: A cool, cool season native grass lesson

I love my cool season grasses, especially Danthonia spicata. They're the first grasses to green up and by the time the warm season grasses are knee high they've begun to set seed! It's a puzzle to me why they're still overlooked, underestimated, unappreciated and in some cases still unknown. On the whole they're easy peasy plants that would grow well in many of our garden settings.

Most cool season grasses don't make as big a show as our handsome warm season native grasses, but, they play an important ecological role in plant communities by providing food (forage and seed) and cover early in the growing season when most other plants are just waking up! That's a lot of coolness!

 September: Autumn Equinox in Flower

I wasn't sure which of the glorious wildflowers of the Autumn Equinox to showcase for Wildflower Wednesday! September has a number of beauties! Salvia azurea was first! Pitcher sage is not only beautiful, it's a favorite of bees. The bumbles are the primary pollinator of this Salvia~they fit perfectly into the lipped flowers. The Carpenter bee, although another frequent visitor, is not a pollinator. It's too large, instead it slits open the corolla and robs the nectar while avoiding contact with the pollen. The stinkers!

Occasionally, butterflies visit, but, I've not captured any photos this year...It's a sweet flower that's native to North Carolina south to Florida; west to Texas; north to Nebraska and Minnesota. It's happy in full sun or partial sun as long as it gets good drainage.


October: Rhus aromatica

 The species Fragrant sumac is a woody plant that can grow 6 to 12 feet. That's entirely too large for my garden (and most of yours), so I planted 'Gro-Low'. It was selected by growers for its dwarf habit, making it very attractive for my garden. It will grow in poor, dry soil in full sun or deep shade. It requires only good drainage. At two to three feet tall and with a 4 foot spread it's a delightful groundcover under my Rusty Blackhaw. The spreading branches root where they touch the ground and that helps it form a dense weed suppressing mat.

Leaves and twigs are aromatic when bruised giving rise to its name~Fragrant sumac. The smaller leaves do have a slight resemblance to those of its relative poison ivy (Rhus radicans), however this fragrant sumac is a totally non-poisonous plant.

It blooms in spring and the nectar and pollen attract small bees, flies and even some larger carpenter bees.   Small clusters of hairy, red berries which may persist into winter replace the female flowers. The ripe fruits are a treat for birds and small mammals.


November: Thankful for wildflowers and you

I am thankful for wildflowers. They have brought me so much joy. When I stop and think about it I have wildflowers to thank for helping me gain new knowledge, for great adventures and for meeting new people. Without wildflowers I wouldn't have met my first garden mentor, Paul Moore. I wouldn't know Mike Berkley and Terri Barnes of GroWild. Without wildflowers I might not have been drawn to the Tennessee Naturalist Program or volunteered at Owl's Hill.

Wildflowers led me to blogging and searching the internet to learn all I could about native plants. That's when I stumbled upon Pam Penick's blog Digging and read about Garden Bloggers Fling. I've gone to many Flings and met bloggers who have become some of my dearest friends~I cannot mention everyone for fear I will forget some. I count myself fortunate indeed to have made friends with folks from all over this country,  Canada and the UK....Some of them are even as wild about wildflowers as I am.

My love for wildflowers opened my eyes to pollinators and their importance to our gardens, to agriculture and to the earth. I came to love wildflowers so much that I wanted others to appreciate them. That's why I started the Wildflower Wednesday monthly meme.

Which brings me to today's Wildflower Wednesday post about thankfulness.

I want to thank the best ever group of bloggers who join me on the fourth Wednesday of each month to celebrate wildflowers from all over this great big beautiful world. Diana, Donna, Rose, Sue, Alison, Janet, Kathy, Lea, Carol, Cindy, Ann, Dee, Frances, Hannah, Greggo, Aaron, Jason, Shirley and Beth, you are all the very best.* I am honored that you join me as often as you can. Thank you for caring about wildflowers, for taking the time to share your gardens and your knowledge with all of us. You rock.

My dear friends, Thank you for planting more wildflowers. Thank you for taking care of the bees and all the other pollinators that visit and live in your gardens. Thank you for tolerating what others consider pesky wildlife. Thank you for another year of your friendship, visits, comments and for joining me in celebrating wildflowers all over this great big wonderful world. 

You are the best and having you in my life has enriched it beyond measure.
See you next year!
xoxogail


Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.

Phloxy Ladies and Gents

Phlox paniculata, monarch butterfly among the Susans (2009)

The gardener at Clay and Limestone loves other phlox besides Phlox pilosa, the Practically Perfect Pink Phlox. Really, she does! PPPP~near the end of their bloom time this summer

Long time readers can't be surprised by that admission.
Phlox is a summer favorite in many of our gardens.
It's an easy peasy kind of plant.
How could you not love a plant that is still blooming after the summer we've had!
Way back before I knew anything about gardening and way before I figured out how to garden at C&L~summer phlox reigned supreme! I discovered them the first summer after we moved here. Their pretty lilac and pink blooms caught my eye blooming among the shrubs. Luckily for the garden, I knew nothing about deadheading or pinching for more bloom and they seeded all around the yard. Today there are dozens of plantings in shade, part shade and part sun.

They may have been a named variety at one time, if so, they had reverted to the pinks and lilacs of the species. I think the color lovely and have trouble seeing it as the same "muddy magenta" I've heard folks refer to for years. Magenta, pink, lilac, it matters not to me or the many pollinators that like to visit this easy care native. I've seen bees, moths and butterflies visit all summer. I've read that hummers visit it, too. But, I've not seen them. P paniculata "Laura" with Green Dragon and Globe Spice Heuchera in the shade.

They love moist, well draining, rich soil...What they get here is shallow, dry, clay soil that's been amended with compost, leaf mold and mulch. I do give them a nice big drink every week and that keeps them happy. Garden phlox is naturally occurring in the cooler eastern half of North America. If you can keep it moist with decent drainage; I think you can grow it most of your gardens (hardiness zones 3 to 8). The biggest problem I have had with phlox has been an attack of Phlox Bug~a nasty creature that sucks the plant juices and disfigures the plant. I cut the plant back after the first frost and trash the stalks....never composting them. Phlox bug over winters in the stalks and this takes care of most of them. You can read about my battle with them here.

Phlox glaberrima summer 2010

Earlier this summer P glaberrima came to live in the garden. This phlox needs the soil to be consistently moist. It's planted near a downspout, with a daily watered container very near it so that water drains onto the phlox roots. I love my phloxy.

I like to mix Phlox paniculata with native stokesia and daylilies in the sunnier Susan's bed (seen earlier this summer).

The soil is shallow there and I have to be diligent and water it once a week or they decline.

Most summers I don't deadhead them.
The result is a lovely mixture of pretty pinkish phlox
scattered here and there where ever they chance to set seed.

Isn't she lovely?
Not magenta at all!

We aren't sure which plants are the parents,
but, gladly welcome her sibling anywhere they want to grow.

Could it be P paniculata 'David'

Or, P paniculata 'Laura'?

We may never know, but as long as bees visit
and I let them seed about

C&L will have plenty of pretty pink Phlox paniculata

I'm so glad you stopped by, I've sure missed visiting with you....It won't be long before we can sit on the porch and have a nice long talk. It's just a tad too hot and humid right now.
xxooGail