SPRINGHOUSE FARM JOURNAL
By Heather Lovett
On Dec. 10, 1745, the English plantsman Peter Collinson received in the mail a botanical specimen from his American friend John Bartram, who identified it as "One sod of creeping Spring Lychnis." Collinson had gotten many plants from Bartram over the years, but this one was so well received that a century later the rock garden expert Reginald Farrer proposed naming December 10 a "horticultural holiday."
It’s hard to imagine the excitement surrounding that early introduction, considering how ubiquitous "creeping spring lychnis" is today. Acres of it are sold by the flat at garden centers each spring, and every suburban property, it seems, boasts a stone wall or sloping bank carpeted with brilliant sheets of the closely spaced flowers. As the writer Neltje Blanchan once remarked, "Very slight encouragement induces it to run wild."
Bartram’s plant came to be known as moss, or mountain pink (Phlox subulata), and remains a favorite of rock garden enthusiasts both here and abroad. Blooming in April and May, the needle-like evergreen leaves are nearly smothered with masses of small pink, lavender, or white star-shaped flowers. (Despite its common name, P. subulata does not belong to the pink family, and is unrelated to lychnis.)
Moss pink is just one of many lovely species of phlox, virtually all of them native only to North America (the possible exception being P. siberica, which may or may not have migrated from Alaska). First to bloom in my garden is creeping phlox (P. stolonifera), its delicately scented lavender flowers opening in mid-April above a mat of ground-hugging oval leaves.
Allen Lacy identifies this and other early-blooming phloxes as "the real sweethearts of the spring woodland garden." I couldn’t agree more; in fact, I would go him one better and say the Phlox genus provides a series of garden sweethearts spring through fall, with hardly a break in between.
Another early bloomer is wild blue phlox (P. divericata), a similar, but more upright plant, with many light blue fragrant flowers that seem to float like spreading pools among the daffodils and early columbine. A truly easy shade plant, wild blue phlox is one of the first perennials I ever planted, and it has reliably bloomed in my spring garden ever since.
Not long after the woodland phloxes have faded, annual Drummond phlox (P. drummondii) begins to shine, blooming continuously (if deadheaded) on foot-tall plants until the weather gets too hot. I start mine from seed indoors, but transplant-sized seedlings can be purchased at garden centers.
I’ve grown several varieties in mostly pastel shades, including the beautiful buff-yellow heirloom ‘Isabellina’; the lovely soft-colored blend ‘Watercolor Memories’; and a similar mix of pink, apricot, white, and pale yellow with the groan-inducing name ‘Phlox of Sheep.’ They also come in more vivid colors, some with contrasting white eyes.
Native to south-central Texas, the species is named after Thomas Drummond, a plant hunter from Scotland who is said to have collected and sent home some 700 plants and 150 birds on an expedition to the American Southwest in the 1830s. The recipient was William J. Hooker, director of Kew Gardens, who seemed more impressed by the variety of mosses in the collection than the specimen for which his employee was immortalized.
Late summer belongs to perhaps the most well-known species in this family of garden sweetheartsthe tall Phlox paniculata, known commonly as garden, or autumn phlox. Like P. subulata, garden phlox was among the many plants sent to England by John Bartram in the 18th century, and was probably collected near his home in Philadelphia.
From late July onward garden phlox produces large rounded clusters of sweet-smelling flowers on three- to six-foot stems, repeating the performance on a smaller scale if faded blooms are removed. Typically pink or magenta in the wild, garden phlox has undergone intensive breeding, and is now offered in colors ranging from deep rose-red to lilac with every shade in between.
Anyone who has grown this perennial garden favorite knows about its tendency to develop powdery mildew. Fortunately, there are some excellent mildew-resistant varieties, my favorite being ‘David,’ a pure white selection discovered in a parking lot at the Brandywine Conservancy (and named after the discoverer’s husband). Garden phlox does best in full sun or light shade, in humus-rich soil heavily dressed with manure.
A few other phlox species are cultivated in gardens, including two that are often confusedspotted phlox (P. maculata), also called wild sweet william, and Carolina phlox (P. carolina). Like shorter versions of garden phlox, both grow about 30 inches tall and tend to be resistant to mildew. ‘Natasha’ is a popular variety of spotted phlox with pink-and-white "pinwheel" flowers, while Carolina phlox is best known for the white cultivar ‘Miss Lingard.’
I’ve had all of these phloxes in my garden at one time or another with the exception of Bartram’s "creeping spring lychnis," the ubiquitous moss pink. My only excuse for this omission is the lack of a rock garden or stone wall for it to clamber over, but I ought to be able to find a place for it somewhere.
Whether or not I get around to planting moss pink, I have in mind a trip to New York City in May, to see if a passage in Neltje Blanchan’s book "Nature’s Garden" still holds true. In 1900 she wrote: "There are great rocks in Central Park, New York, worth travelling miles to see in early May, when their stern faces are flushed and smiling with these blossoms." That would indeed be something to see, and perhaps worth declaring a horticultural holiday to celebrate.
References:
Blanchan, Neltje. "Nature’s Garden." New York: Doubleday, Page, 1900.
Kastner, Joseph. "A Species of Eternity." New York: Knopf, 1977.
Lacy, Allen. "In a Green Shade." New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000.
Ward, Bobby J. "A Contemplation Upon Flowers." Portland, Oregon: Timber Press, 1999.
Phlox Sources:
Select Seeds, 180 Stickney Hill Road, Union, Conn., 06076. (800) 253-5691. P. drummondii ‘Isabellina’ and ‘Phlox of Sheep’ (seeds), P. paniculata ‘David’ (plants).
Burpee, 300 Park Ave., Warminster Pa., 18991. (800) 888-1447. P. drummondii ‘Watercolor Memories’ (seeds), P. paniculata ‘David’ (plants).
Bluestone Perennials, 7211 Middle Ridge Road, Madison, Ohio, 44057. (800) 852-5243. P. subulata, P. stolonifera, P. divericata, P. paniculata ‘David’ and many others, P. carolina ‘Miss Lingard,’ P. maculata ‘Natasha’ (plants).
Heather Lovett is a resident of Hopewell Township.