The Phlox
Phlox paniculata. GARDEN phloxes are compounds of several species, and but little of their origin is distinctly traceable in their styles of growth and flowering. It will suffice to say that the so-called Phlox decussata and P. pyramidalis, to which most of the garden phloxes are referred, have no proper existence as species, and for the cultivation and classification of phloxes it is best to consider the habit (whether tall, dwarf, or intermediate), the time of flowering (whether early or late), and the colour and general style of the flowers, those that are large and circular and produced in dense masses being the best. The florist is chiefly concerned with their decorative qualities, and will have abundant reason to be gratified, provided he has first secured a good collection, for the varieties that have been produced by cross-breeding within the past ten or twelve years are remarkable for perfection of form and exquisite colouring. In self-coloured purple, crimson, and salmon-tinted, and in oculate flowers that have white grounds and centres delicately stained with rose, carmine, and ruby, this class of plants is extremely rich. Of pure whites there are not many of good quality, and we have as yet no scarlet, no yellow, and no blue phloxes. We may, however, hope for scarlet and blue, because in some of the later varieties these colours are nearly realised, but we can hardly hope for yellow since nowhere in the genus is there any strong leaning that way. As the case stands we have command of a sumptuous series of summer and autumn flowers, and it is but the simple truth to say that the florists' phloxes have pre-eminent claims on the attention of amateurs, because of their splendour, their hardiness, cheapness, and extreme usefulness, whether to exhibit, to cut from for decorations, or to enrich the garden with their noble panicles of many-coloured flowers. As to the employment of phloxes in the garden, there is no method so effective as to dot them about amongst trees and shrubs, keeping them, of course, in the foreground, and ensuring them a sufficiency of air and light. As border flowers they are invaluable; but the least interesting way of growing them is in large compartments of phloxes only, as we see them in nurseries, and in the gardens of amateurs who give them particular attention for the purpose of exhibiting them. When well grouped on the exhibition table they are altogether delightful, but a great lot of phloxes in a lump, as it were, in the garden is like a mouthful of honey--too rich to be enjoyable and likely to choke one. The cultivation of the phlox is a very simple affair. The plants being left in the ground all the winter take no harm, and begin early in the spring to grow. When the new shoots are about two inches high, the roots may be lifted and divided, and planted again in freshly-dug and liberally-manured ground. In their new stations they may be allowed to stand two or three years, and should then be taken up, divided, and again planted. This we may call the rough-and-ready way, and it has for many years past been our way with a collection comprising over a hundred varieties. When grown for exhibition, a fresh stock should be planted every year in well-manured turfy loam, and if the summer should be hot and dry, the plants should have liberal help from the water-pot. In making plants for ordinary purposes it is quite sufficient to pull off rooted pieces, but when stock of some particular sorts is required in quantity, the old stools should be potted and gently forced, and the tops should be made into cuttings and struck in a gentle heat. By this mode of procedure one plant may be made the parent of hundreds, because propagating may be continued until far into the month of May, and the plants will flower the same season, though late perhaps. To grow fine phloxes the two important points are to renew the plants frequently and feed them well. To raise phloxes from seed is an equally simple affair. First secure your seed, as Mrs. Glasse might say; and if you begin with first-rate sorts you will not get much. Our plan has been to sow in pans as soon as the seed was fully ripe, and keep the young plants in a pit through the winter. But it will suit amateurs better to sow in spring, and we must advise keeping the seed-pans under glass until the plants are forward, when they may be planted in an open nursery-bed to flower. They should not be planted in the borders until they have flowered and proved to be worth keeping.
The pretty Phlox Drummondi is so surprisingly beautiful that we cannot but regret it is seldom seen in English gardens. It is the more valuable now that the distinctive colours are easily secured by sowing well-saved seeds, so that as a bedding-plant it is not only one of the loveliest, but certainly one of the cheapest. If the seed is sown at any time between the middle of March and the middle of April, and started in a gentle heat, the usual nursing of a half-hardy annual will suffice to ensure strong plants to put out at the end of May, and this being accomplished, there is nothing more to be done, for the showers and sunshine will do the rest. In burning summers (of which, unfortunately, we have but few) this lovely plant holds its own as well as any border plant in cultivation. When verbenas and calceolarias have been roasted too brown, and even scarlet geraniums are beginning to cry for something to drink, Drummond's phlox appears to be unconcerned, and goes on blooming as if the hot weather had been ordered for it.