WOODLAND PHLOX

WOODLAND PHLOX

  PHLOX IN A MID-SUMMERGARDEN

Thursday, 8:00 AM.  63 degrees F at the ferry dock, 60 on the back porch.  Wind ENE, gusty.  The sky is overcast and we have had a third of an inch of rain. The humidity is 96%. It would be foggy if it weren't so windy, and we may get more rain today. The barometer is steady for now, at 29.61".  The high today will be in the low 60's, then warming significantly over the weekend, with partly cloudy skies and the chance of a thunderstorm again on Monday.
    Woodland Phlox, Phlox divaricata, mostly pink or blue, sometimes white, are blooming in gardens now.  Phlox are mostly North American species in the Jacob’s Ladder Family  (Polemoniaceae).
   Woodland phlox  are tall, strong growers (the Latin species name means "spreading") and stand out along with asters, goldenrods,  browneyed susans and purple cone flowers in the mid-summer and early fall garden.  Native to forests and fields of North America, they do not reach this far north and west in their natural range, but are hardy when planted in gardens.
   Creeping phlox, Phlox subulata, is one of the first plants to flower in the early spring, and is native to dunes and rocky ledges around many of the Great Lakes and in the Appalachian mountains.