Spring has arrived, that magical time of year for selecting all of the plants you want to incorporate into your landscape! This week we wanted to introduce you to an excellent groundcover perennial plant, Phlox, characterized as being easy to care for, reliable and low maintenance, the colourful star-shaped blooms and dark green needle-like leaves can add a bright splash of colour to your Spring garden!
When selecting perennials to incorporate into your garden, you will want to consider the growth of the plant by looking at the potential height and spread on the plant information card. Establish a hierarchy in your landscape- similar to how you would line up a group for a picture, tall in the back, shorter in the front. Phlox being a low, groundcover plant, (Height: 5cm-15cm |Spread: 25cm-65cm), can be great as a border plant, incorporated into a rock garden, used to stabilize the soil on slopes or to provide seasonal flowering interest to your garden.
When choosing the perfect spot in your garden to incorporate phlox, you will want to consider the following factors:
- Sun Exposure: Choose a location that offers full sun; we would recommend South and West facing gardens.
- Soil Type: Phlox will grow well in normal or sandy/gravelly dry, we would recommend spreading a 2-3” layer of mulch around the plants to help the soil retain moisture.
- Maintenance: Water well until established, meaning weekly and often enough to keep the soil lightly moist after that. When watering, try to keep the foliage as dry as possible by applying the water to the soil rather than the foliage/plant.
Decided that you would like to incorporate Phlox into your landscape? With a little research you will discover that they come in numerous varieties including low ground cover, medium height and tall plants- here at Anna’s we offer the following ground cover assortment to choose from:
Moss Phlox –Amazing Grace, Candy Stripe, Crackerjack, Crimson Beauty, Drummons Pink, Emerald Cushion Blue, Emerald Pink, Fort Hill Moss, Oakington Blue Eyes, Purple Beauty, Snowflake
Fun Fact: April’s “Full Pink Moon” received its name because it indicated the appearance of the “moss pink” or wild ground phlox, one of the first Spring flowers.
