Flame flower, phlox – care, cutting, wintering and multiplying

The flame flower likes a sunny to semi-shady location, the flowers sometimes burn in full sun. The phlox are not very competitive, so they should be planted in such a way that they are not overcrowded. The soil should be humus but loose, like clay soil, heavily compacted and rooted soil could cause problems for a phlox. So, dense soil should be loosened well before planting a phlox in it. Sandy soils get a lot of compost worked in, and are well moistened and mulched for a while beforehand.

If you plant three to five phlox per square meter, they will grow nice and dense, but without taking away nutrients or light – that’s a planting distance of 60 to 80 cm. Perennials should always be grouped in such a way that they quickly form closed associations. “Closed” means that neighboring plants touch each other very slightly, this should be done by the second year. Then you have a low-maintenance planting where the leaf mass shades the soil and thus retains moisture. The plants are also close enough together to prevent competitors from germinating.

Planting time & soil conditions

Autumn is the best time to plant phlox. Any soil should be prepared for planting by incorporating mature compost. In the first period after planting, the phlox should not suffer from drought.

Once the perennial phlox has established itself, it will certainly need some additional water, especially in sunny locations and during flowering on hot summer days. After flowering, many phlox take a break, so drought doesn’t bother them. Then you only have to be careful again next spring: Many species do not tolerate spring drought at all.

You don’t need to fertilize the phlox either, you could only give some phosphorous bloom fertilizer to support the flowering, from time to time some compost would be even better. In this case, the compost should be raked in so that the phlox can quickly access the nutrients. That was actually the whole care, because:

Do not necessarily cut phlox

You don’t have to cut the phlox at all – especially not if different phlox varieties bloom one after the other. Then you don’t have to artificially prolong the flowering. The faded stalks should always remain on the plant until the nutrients have been absorbed and the plant mass withers. Only then should you reach for the scissors.

You can choose whether you want to give the phlox the usual perennial pruning in late autumn or early in spring. If it bloomed into late summer or fall, it’s best to leave it alone until spring, including the foliage and stem. The old shoots are a good winter protection. By the way, the withered infructescences usually look very nice in winter.

Early bloomers are cut back to hand height in late autumn, late bloomers as soon as possible just before they start sprouting in spring, from early February to mid-March. After that, you have to be careful, the snails love the fresh shoots that appear now.

However, you can extend the flowering time of your perennial phlox with scissors and a trick. You remove the main flower on about a third of the shoots towards the end of June. This encourages the plants to develop secondary inflorescences from the leaf axils, usually many small umbels, which will then bloom later.

hibernate and multiply

The flame flowers are perennial and very hardy, they can do without winter protection if you mulch them in autumn. Even late frosts in spring usually cannot impress or damage the phlox a bit. Mulching also helps prevent waterlogging around the roots in winter, which could lead to rot.

You can make several phloxes out of one by dividing the rootstock in the fall. Or you cut cuttings from the old plants and grow new young plants from them.

What to do if the phlox “mickles”?

Try a different variety! It’s not at all uncommon for several phlox varieties to show rather inexplicable reactions to climate and location. A phlox reacts to even the smallest change with a different start of flowering, a different flower size, a different flower color and sometimes simply with growth that is not at all satisfactory. While the next one feels “at home” at the same location and shows it.

If your garden is not very natural and largely planted with monocultures, there is always the danger of spreading leaf spot diseases, powdery mildew and stem nematodes, which the phlox tend to infest. A quick remedy here is to buy phlox plants that are as natural as possible and grown in your region, long-term help is redesigned in the direction of a natural garden.

Characteristics of the phlox

The flame flowers are among the few plants that are better known under their botanical name phlox than under their German name. Phlox belong to the Polemoniaceae family. These also have the beautiful name Himmelsleitergewächse. You can’t eat them or feed them, you can’t brew them for tea and you can only use them medicinally as a laxative. So this grace is really limited to her shapeliness.

Perhaps that’s why the phlox works so hard to make up for this “relative uselessness” with its beauty, to which it owes its name. “Phlox” means “flame” in ancient Greek and was given the name of the beautiful flower because its wild form shows spectacularly bright red flowers.

The phlox come from North America, most species are perennials, some of the around 70 species made their way to Europe as early as the 18th century, where they were immediately enthusiastically received. And were enthusiastically bred. The sensational red often comes through. In the meantime, however, the beautiful flame flowers are available in almost every imaginable color and in more than a thousand varieties. Since around the turn of the millennium, the annual phlox has also conquered our beds and balcony boxes, here is an overview of the varieties:

1000 Sorten Phlox

Don’t worry, they are not all listed here, only the best known. They are organized by flowering time, so if you wish, by shopping by this list you can turn your garden into a never-ending succession of phlox blooms:

1. Phlox divaricata or herbaceous forest phlox flowers first, in the early varieties in the second half of April. This phlox, also known as “blue phlox”, is no longer limited to the color blue. They are also available with white, pink or purple flowers. Wood Phlox will grow (perhaps with a little extra watering) anywhere in the garden. In full sun as well as underplanting or in the light shade of trees. It really is still far too little represented in our gardens.

Because the “Sweet William” (nickname in America) exudes a bewitching scent, similar to lilac, just in time for the “blue hour”, i.e. at dusk. The “White Perfume” and “Clouds of Perfume” varieties are said to have a particularly intense scent, which almost causes concern with the second name (clouds of perfume).

2. Phlox subulata is a low and evergreen cushion phlox that joins the woodland phlox with April/May flowering. This phlox forms dense cushions, carpets that look almost like moss. The flowers, which appear in lush quantities, hang far above when the phlox is growing on a rock garden wall, as a path border or in a bucket.

The colors are varied and so bright that they can be seen from afar, the flowers often have a contrasting colored eye, the whole plant is vigorous and undemanding.

3. From May/June, the migratory phlox Phlox stolonifera unfolds its flowers, which is quite rightly called migratory phlox. It develops runners rooting at the nodes and thus forms loose, large mats over time. The flowers are white, pink, purple and blue in many shades, they smell strong, day and night. The wandering phlox also tolerates quite shady locations and is a very good underplanting for spring-flowering shrubs.

This phlox needs balanced moisture and a light location in spring if it is to bloom profusely. The migratory phlox would also grow in deep shade, but only develop a few flowers, but it tolerates full sun if you keep the soil well moist.

4. Next in line is the early summer phlox, or Phlox glaberrima , which blooms profusely from June onwards. This phlox grows quite compactly and easily, but blooms profusely.
With its short rhizome runners, it forms strong, fairly wide bushes, whose flowering shoots are very stable and hold up well in the vase.

The early summer phlox does not like to be exposed to the blazing sun. In the lowlands, it even prefers sunny to semi-shady locations that offer protection from too much sun. At higher altitudes, it tolerates a sunnier location. This early summer phlox is actually an early summer migratory phlox and is correspondingly robust.

5. The meadow phlox or Phlox maculata is the next to flower, and with a very long flowering period. The meadow phlox should get a nutrient-rich, loamy-humic and well-drained soil, in a location that is not too dry and preferably in full sun. This is how he can develop his flowers most luxuriantly. It does not tolerate drought, and it should be divided and replanted for the first time after two or three years. In this way, the fast-growing plant better retains its vitality and once again manages to form its sometimes huge panicles of flowers.

The meadow phlox has very upright, strong shoots. The flowers can be cut and last a long time in the vase. If you often need eye-catching decoration for living or business premises in summer, this is certainly “your” phlox.

6. More than 100 years ago, Georg Arends bred the Arendsii hybrids, early summer phlox varieties that are still popular today, and rightly so. These are low phloxes, the result of a cross between a forest phlox and a summer phlox, which grow undemanding in light shade and any normal, loose, humus soil and spread over time.

7. The final group is formed by the summer phlox or garden phlox, the Phlox paniculata , they bloom until autumn. Summer phlox are famous for their heady array of colors and delicious fragrance. They are definitely one of the most expressive perennials that you can plant in your garden. Arguably the most varieties of this phlox have been bred, ranging in color from pure white to burning red, pastels and deep purple, all of which change with the changing light.

Summer phlox actually prefers rainy and cool regions with nutrient-rich clay soil. Breeding, however, has made most varieties so adaptable that they will do well in any garden soil that is not entirely devoid of nutrients and moisture if they receive some light. The summer phlox will only struggle in heavily shaded locations, under waterlogging or in heavy or acidic soil. In winter it needs a protective layer of mulch because it has very shallow roots.

Conclusion
After reading this article, you will be able to understand why the well-known perennial grower Karl Foerster believes that “a garden without a phlox is not just a mere mistake, but a sin against summer”. It was not without reason that the phlox was chosen as “Shrub of the Year” in 2006. The best thing about them is that you can enjoy them all season long.