Purdy's California Flowering Plants 
13 
Perennial Phlox. Fine in bold masses of white, red and purple 
PERENNIAL PHLOX are Phlox decussata or P. paniculata as you choose. No 
summer flowers surpass them in hne masses of bright colors or fragrance. As they can 
be had in all heights from a foot to 4 feet, and the choice of fine colors is wide, they 
combine admirably in any mass effect. They are good to set among low shrubs or to 
make large massings of Phlox alone. The illustration is a better description of general 
characteristics than words could be. 
Cult. Phlox thrive best in a loose, mellow, well-worked soil, but I have seen very 
fine flowers in all of the classes of soil common in California. Well-rotted manure, worked 
into the soil in winter, and a good coat of the same put on as a mulch in the summer will, 
with proper watering, give fine results. Phlox have a thick mass of roots not very deep 
in the soil and, if they are allowed to get dry, they suffer and show their suffering by 
the lower leaves turning brown. Success depends not upon a great amount of water 
but in seeing that the soil about them is not dry. The mulch, by retaining moisture 
and keeping the soil loose, is the best aid to this. Sit., sun or preferably light shade. 
Soil well worked in winter and cultivated or mulched in summer. Winter dressing of 
well-rotted manure. Summer mulch of same or any fibrous material. PL, August to 
March, early better. Prop., reset by the second year, using only the strong vigorous 
outer sections of roots. Do not propagate by seeds. 
I have fully a hundred varieties of the finest known Phlox but many are not in 
quantities sufficient to list. I offer below a very choice list and, if any one wishes wider 
variety, I can give it in any colors, at 15 cts. each, $1.25 per doz., in lots of six or more 
of a sort. The heights given are as grown in my own garden in the sun and with good 
culture. In the shade they would be taller. 
