{"title":"Phlox","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe name is the Greek word for flame, given to the genus for the intensity of the color, and phlox is one of the few great garden genera that is almost entirely North American. Nearly every species grown in gardens worldwide, the summer border phlox of English cottage gardens included, traces back to plants collected in the American East and shipped across the Atlantic in the eighteenth century.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePhlox divaricata\u003c\/em\u003e, the woodland phlox, is the one that carpets a Southern hardwood floor pale blue in April, and the plants take dry shade better than the delicate look suggests. \u003cem\u003ePhlox pilosa\u003c\/em\u003e 'Eco Happy Traveler' runs gently through a sunny meadow planting in rose-pink; \u003cem\u003ePhlox carolina\u003c\/em\u003e 'Kim' and \u003cem\u003ePhlox paniculata\u003c\/em\u003e 'Shortwood' carry the tall summer bloom, and both hold far better mildew resistance than the old border phlox that gave the group a bad name. All of them are worked hard by butterflies and by the long-tongued moths that can reach the bottom of the narrow flower tube.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"phlox-paniculata-shortwood","title":"Phlox paniculata 'Shortwood'","description":"\u003cp\u003e'Shortwood' is one of the best of the tall garden phloxes, a strong pink that stands up straight and blooms for weeks in the heart of summer. Each large, domed panicle is packed with fragrant flowers, clear rose-pink around a deeper magenta eye, and the whole plant reads from across the garden, four feet of upright color that never seems to flop.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe plant descends from the famous white 'David', the phlox that made mildew resistance respectable, and shares that parent's clean foliage; 'Shortwood' was selected in Pennsylvania by the plantsman Sinclair Adam. The name honors the garden of Stephanie Cohen, the writer and lecturer known to a generation of gardeners as the Perennial Diva, whose own garden is called Shortwood. The name has nothing to do, we should add, with the old pulpwood measure that most Southerners hear first in the word.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGarden phlox is a native of the eastern and central United States, a Polemoniaceae in the flame-flowered company that gives the genus its name, phlox being Greek for flame. The long-tubed summer flowers are a magnet for the pollinators built to reach them: swallowtails and other butterflies, ruby-throated hummingbirds, the hovering hummingbird moths at dusk, and the long-tongued bees. Few perennials feed so many for so long.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGive 'Shortwood' full sun and rich, moist, well-drained soil, with enough space between plants for air to move and keep mildew at bay; resistant is not the same as immune, and good airflow still earns its keep. Set the tall pink spires in the middle or back of a sunny border, a cottage planting, or a pollinator bed, and cut a few stems for the vase, where the fragrance carries indoors. One honest word: deer and rabbits are as fond of phlox as gardeners are, so protect the plant where browsing pressure runs high.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057938337907,"sku":"PHLO-PANI-SHOR-01Q","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-701.jpg?v=1720140062"},{"product_id":"phlox-pilosa-eco-happy-traveler","title":"Phlox pilosa 'Eco Happy Traveler'","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePhlox pilosa\u003c\/em\u003e, the downy or prairie phlox, is a native of open woods, prairies, and glades across much of the eastern and central United States, and 'Eco Happy Traveler' is one of the most rewarding garden selections, made for a spreading habit and a long run of clear rose-pink bloom. The soft, downy stems and narrow leaves give the plant the common name, and the whole low mat is topped in late spring by loose clusters of fragrant, five-petaled flowers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom late spring into early summer the deep rose flowers open in profusion just above the foliage, each with a darker eye and a light, sweet scent that carries on a warm afternoon. Bees, butterflies, and moths work the clusters steadily, and unlike the taller border phloxes, downy phlox shrugs off much of the powdery mildew that troubles the family.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'Eco Happy Traveler' earns the traveler in the name by spreading slowly into a dense, semi-evergreen mat, useful as a native groundcover, a front-of-border filler, a woodland-edge ribbon, or a cover for a sunny bank where the roots help hold the soil. The habit is steady rather than aggressive, filling ground without overrunning neighbors.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGive full sun to light shade and well-drained soil, and pair the phlox with little bluestem, coneflower, coreopsis, and other sun-loving natives for a naturalistic, pollinator-rich planting. Deer tend to pass the plant by, and the drought tolerance suits lean, sunny sites once the roots are settled.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePhotographs courtesy of Mark Weathington at the JC Raulston Arboretum.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057938600051,"sku":"PHLO-PILO-ECO-HAPP-01G","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/Phlox-pilosa-Eco-Happy-Traveler-002-UNCBG-4-29-08.jpg?v=1736430129"},{"product_id":"phlox-divaricata","title":"Phlox divaricata","description":"\u003cp\u003eWild blue phlox turned up in the Woodlanders catalog almost by insisting on it, growing in the woods around Aiken the way the plant has for as long as anyone can remember. We have watched these colonies for years, and taking this long to offer them is either a comment on our patience or on our woody bias. Possibly both.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePhlox divaricata\u003c\/em\u003e is a native of the eastern woodland understory, ranging from Quebec to the Gulf Coast and west to the Great Plains, a distribution that speaks to a plant far more adaptable than the delicate look suggests. In the wild the phlox threads through rich, humus-filled soils beneath deciduous canopy, forming loose colonies on the forest floor where the light arrives filtered and the moisture stays reliable. In the garden the habit is the same: a spreading, semi-evergreen groundcover that quietly fills the difficult shaded spaces where little else thrives.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe flowers arrive in mid-spring, April into May, in loose clusters atop slender stems that stand ten to fifteen inches above the mat of foliage. The color runs from the palest lavender-blue to a deeper violet, now and then white, each five-petaled flower with a slightly notched petal tip that lends the clusters a softly fringed look up close. The fragrance is light and sweet, present on warm afternoons rather than assertive, and swallowtails find the flowers reliably.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat makes \u003cem\u003ePhlox divaricata\u003c\/em\u003e worth growing, beyond the flowers, is the behavior across the other ten months. The semi-evergreen foliage forms a low, dense mat that suppresses weeds, holds the soil, and lends quiet structure to shaded beds through winter. The phlox spreads steadily but not aggressively, slowly colonizing the ground you want covered without pressing claims on the ground you don't. A native plant doing native-plant things, with rather more grace than most.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44453371871347,"sku":"PHLO-DIVA-01Q","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/PhloxdivaricataWoodlanders1.jpg?v=1773678181"},{"product_id":"phlox-carolina-kim","title":"Phlox carolina 'Kim'","description":"\u003cp\u003ePhlox carolina 'Kim' is among the best of the Carolina phloxes, a selection found by the plantswoman Jan Midgley in Alabama and grown ever since for good health and honest flower power. From a low, tidy clump of narrow, almost lime-green leaves rise sturdy stems eighteen to twenty-four inches tall, each carrying an open, airy cluster of pale to bright pink flowers, five petals apiece, hovering just above the foliage from late spring into early summer. Where the border phloxes so often finish the season spotted and tired, 'Kim' holds clean, fresh foliage from spring straight through fall.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePhlox carolina, the thickleaf or Carolina phlox, is a native of open woods, clearings, and roadside banks through the southeastern and north-central United States, a well-mannered cousin of the taller garden phloxes. The name phlox, from the Greek word for flame, honors the bright color of the clan, while carolina marks the country where the wild species was first gathered. The 'Kim' selection stands out for a vigorous, sturdy habit and, most of all, for a stubborn resistance to the powdery mildew that plagues so much of the tribe, a trait that has earned the plant high marks in trial gardens.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the garden, Phlox carolina 'Kim' earns a place at the front or middle of a sunny border, along a woodland edge, or through a meadow or pollinator planting, where the airy pink heads read from a distance and the low, mildew-free foliage stays presentable all season. The lightly fragrant flowers draw butterflies, hummingbirds, and long-tongued bees through early summer. Pair the phlox with coreopsis, little bluestem, coneflower, and amsonia for a loose, native, sun-loving picture.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGive the plant full sun to light shade and an average to moist, well-drained soil, and 'Kim' asks for little beyond a summer drink in the driest weeks. Shear or deadhead the spent heads for a tidy clump and a chance at rebloom, then cut the old stems to the basal foliage in late fall or early spring. A tough, clean, long-blooming native phlox, and one of the few that shrugs off the mildew where the rest give in.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45232254058611,"sku":"PHLO-CARO-KIM-01Q","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/Phlox_carolina_ssp._carolina_Kim.png?v=1773264765"}],"url":"https:\/\/woodlanders.net\/collections\/phlox.oembed","provider":"Woodlanders","version":"1.0","type":"link"}