76 
House & Garden 
AN ALL-AMERICAN FLOWER 
A Wide Range of Color , Size and Season of 
Bloom Is Afforded by the Hardy Phloxes 
JOHN L. REA 
Phlox subalata, blooming 
in spring, conies in pure 
white and a number of 
delicate tints 
A pleasing group 
for the border is 
made by planting 
Miss Lingard and 
Tapis Blanc 
S OME plants are only oc¬ 
casionally to be seen in 
gardens and never quite 
succeed in overcoming the feeling 
on the part of the spectator that 
they are allowed to appear there 
rather on the gardener’s sufferance 
than from any inalienable right of 
their own. On the other hand, 
there are those plants, more limited 
in numbers than one would at first 
perhaps suppose, upon whom the 
very existence of our gardens seems 
to depend. In the latter group 
the peony, the iris, and the hardy 
phlox are among the absolutely in¬ 
dispensable herbaceous perennials. 
If we take dependability into con¬ 
sideration, length of blooming sea¬ 
son, abundance of bloom, color 
range, and possibly the amount of 
downright neglect the phlox will 
stand and still give color and sub¬ 
stance to our borders, we shall 
be apt to award it first honors. 
With this in mind one is likely 
to derive considerable satisfaction 
from the fact that in both its an¬ 
nual and perennial forms the 
phlox is an all-American plant, 
for the thirty species which the 
botanists recognize are without ex¬ 
ception natives of North America, 
and most of them of the United 
States. Of these thirty, however, 
not above six are commonly found 
planted in gardens and some of 
these are seldom thought of as 
phloxes, being known under names 
that give no hint of their relation¬ 
ship to the tall brilliant plants of 
our midsummer gardens. 
Many of us have blooming 
amongst our tulips and daffodils a 
plant bearing soft lavender flowers 
usually known as Wild Sweet Wil¬ 
liam, phlox divaricata of the scien¬ 
tists. Opening at about the same 
time but of a redder tint, phlox 
maculata is not altogether unknown 
as a garden flower. 
Perhaps the most useful and at 
the same time the loveliest of the 
early flowering phloxes is subulata, 
so-called from the resemblance of 
its short pointed leaves to the shoe¬ 
maker’s awl, the subula. This too 
(Continued on page 162) 
■au Antoine 
e r is the 
vhite hardy 
e have for 
border 
Tapis Blanc, a dwarf 
creamy white , has a long 
blooming season and 
does well as edging 
