Monday, April 19, 2010

Phlox

Phlox divaricata, Wild Blue Phlox, is the perfect plant for well drained shade. Really any old Phlox will do and I'm happy to see most found in the US are native. Some are fragrant, some are creeping, others are upright short 2' tall perennials. They come in a wide array of colors. Best of all, they're pretty.

My only complaint is I have never seen anything really work the flowers. Granted a lot of my plants like Trillium almost never come face to face with a bee but this plant in particular, for the amount of flowers it eventually gets it has almost no attention. I have seen a bumblebee on it before but that's about it. The flowers are an odd shape and I suspect it's ideally pollinated by moths and butterflies. None of which are particularly abundant in the spring time but better to have it there then not. An excellent plant and I'd say one of the prettiest to put in a shade area (arguably a hard spot to fill in the garden).