Perennial Phloxes Worth Growing— By Elizabeth Herrick, 



AN ATTEMPT TO HELP THE AMATEUR TO A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE MERIT OF 

 SOME OF THE MORE RECENT INTRODUCTIONS — PURE COLOR EFFECTS AND THEIR HARMONIES 



Mass- 

 achusetts 



THE great multiplicity of named var- 

 ieties of perennial phlox is one great 

 cause of most of us knowing so little about 

 what are really the best varieties. The 

 phlox impels attention because it is the 

 most showy of our hardy perennials during 

 its season (July to November), and it is so 

 easy to grow that it may almost be said to 

 thrive under neglect! It may be planted 

 at almost any time of the year and old 

 roots may be taken up and " divided, " i. e., 

 cut into pieces with the spade and reset to 

 grow with greater vigor. I have tried to 

 select the more desirable from this host and 

 to help other amateurs to an easier task 

 of selection for their own needs. The ste- 

 reotyped catalogue description is dreadfully 

 inadequate — there are usually just two 

 words for ' word descriptions, the orig- 

 inator's and the introducer's — pinks 



Coquelicot is a bright scarlet phlox. Its flowers 

 however are rather small 



masquerading as mauves, salmon-scarlets 

 as pure orange, magentas as crimson, to 

 the bewilderment of the purchaser and the 

 general upset of the garden. Another 

 cause of confusion is the fact that, even 

 when catalogue descriptions of a variety 

 tally, as they seldom do, the lay-under- 

 standing of color differs widely from that 

 of the professional nurseryman and florist. 

 In my collection, Selma and Gruppen- 

 konigin, both listed, in most catalogues that 

 I have seen, as delicate rose-mauve, prove 

 an exquisite light pink. I am sorry to 

 think how many possible purchasers of 

 these beautiful varieties may have been 

 frightened away by the fatal "mauve" of the 

 color-terrorists. The gardener may, to be 

 sure, rely upon some florist or nurseryman 



to send him what he ought to have; but 

 florists and nurserymen are not, unhappily, 

 always the artists their occupation would 

 suggest them to be, and in nine cases out of 

 ten the unfortunate buyer by proxy will 

 get just what he oughtn't to have. The 

 best way to select varieties for your 

 garden is to visit a good nursery, but often 

 there is no local nursery, or, when there is, 

 it carries only a few of the older varieties. 

 So, in the end, the beginner is driven back 

 to the catalogue. 



HOW TO SELECT 



The first step in selection is to consider 

 carefully the projected location of the 

 phloxes. If in a new garden, there is 

 wider scope of choice, as one does not have 

 to avoid color-clashes with other plants; 

 if in a border already started, be careful to 

 select only those colors that will harmon- 

 ize with what August-to-November- bloom- 

 ing perennials are already possessed. 



The best of the early blooming phloxes 

 is the white Miss Lingard, happy in any 

 color combination. 



If the grounds are extensive enough to 

 permit, a very pretty and satisfactory 

 arrangement of phloxes is to alternate 

 groups of two or three of a color with 

 clumps of delphiniums and the white 

 plume poppy (Bocconia cor data), in the 

 background of a wide herbaceous border. 

 The grouping of white and blue at inter- 

 vals between the more brilliant and daring 

 shades of the phloxes contributes to a 

 harmonious blending of colors that side 

 by side would be inadmissible. Even with 

 this arrangement the pinks and reds should 

 be separated as widely as possible and the 

 salmon-scarlets and orange-scarlets con- 

 trasted with the pure whites. 



Of the whites, the largest-flowered var- 

 ieties to date, are Von Lassburg, medium 

 tall (2- 2 1 ft.), and rather late, Frau Antoine 

 Buchner and Helena Vacaresco, dwarf 

 (under 2 ft.). Probably the best tall (3 ft.) 

 white is Mrs. Jenkins, with immense pan- 

 icles of good-sized blooms; Purity and the 

 late Jeanne d'Arc are older but excellent. 

 A deservedly popular white and by many 

 reckoned the best white phlox in existence, 

 is the already mentioned suffructicosa 

 Miss Lingard, which kindly begins flower- 

 ing in June, fully a month earlier than the 

 decussata phloxes and gives of itself again 

 generously in September. Miss Lingard 

 has a second point of superiority in its 

 foliage of dark, glossy green, happily 

 immune from attacks of the red spider. 



Of the salmon-scarlet phloxes, General 

 Von Heutz and Athis, the latter the tallest 

 growing phlox except the new Goliath, 

 are the most desirable. A phlox sold as 

 Brilliant and described as blood-red, 

 proved, with me, to belong to this color- 

 class. It is of medium height, with very 



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large individual flowers, having, however, a 

 trifle more orange in composition than 

 either of the others. The effect is un- 

 deniably "brilliant." 



The best bright scarlet is the tall-grow- 

 ing and immense-flowered Geo. H. Stroh- 

 lein, an improvement on the popular 

 Coquelicot, of the same color but of poorer 

 habit and small-flowered. Baron Van 

 Dedem, a new red, and Vesuvius are 

 similar in shade to Coquelicot but have 

 larger trusses and individual flowers. 



Of the so-called crimsons, the hand- 

 somest is Comte Von Hochberg. Another 

 good crimson, though described as "ruby- 

 red," is Captain Wilhelmy, a very bright 

 and pleasing phlox, though small-flowered. 

 Champs Elysees and Rosenberg, although 

 usually classed as crimson, have a decided 

 carmine-magenta tinge. Rosenberg, how- 

 ever, is a truly magnificent variety, having 

 immense flowers and really symmetrical 

 form. 



The best pale pink phlox that I have 

 grown is the variety catalogued as Beranger 

 and described very briefly as "white, 

 suffused pink, crimson eye," an accurate 

 description enough, so far as it goes, but it 

 doesn't go far enough. In my garden this 

 phlox has proved itself worthy of more 

 enthusiastic notice. On first opening the 

 blossoms appear, in warm weather, to be 

 nearly white, but gradually suffuse until 

 the whole flower is the most exquisite 



P. suffructicosa, var. Miss Lingard flowers generously 

 from June to September. It has white flowers 



