How to Use Creeping Phlox in Garden Design

Creeping phlox is a wonderful asset to any spring garden, whether a shady woodland garden or a bed that welcomes full sun and little water. This is not the result of a miracle plant. "Creeping phlox" is the correct descriptor for a native plant, Phlox stolonifera, which thrives in moist semi-shaded settings, and a favorite nursery plant, Phlox subulata, with a higher tolerance for heat and dryness. Contact your local native plant society to find out about Phlox stolonifera in your area. Learn to use the more adaptable Phlox subulata in a variety of landscaping designs. Does this Spark an idea?

Instructions

Shape, Size and Colors

1

Measure the length and width of the area you would like to cover with phlox subulata. You will need enough plants to set them 2 feet apart in rows 2 feet apart. A mature phlox plant can cover an area totalling 1 foot to 18 inches, and you will see substantial growth even during the first year. Within two years, you can reasonably expect the entire space to be covered by this aggressive plant.

2

Purchase Phlox subulata in your desired colors. Phlox subulata can be found in shades of red, lavender, pink and white. An area like a rock garden, where plants are separated from each other, welcomes a variety of colors. A dull slope in danger of eroding can be turned into a dramatic single-color statement, while plants also assure stabilization of the soil.

3

Plan companions for your phlox once blooms fade. By late spring, you will be left with low (4- to 6-inch-high) mounds of fine dark needles that form an attractive but somewhat monotonous background for other plants. Since phlox subulata will tolerate some dappled or partial shade, consider open-branched shrubs like red ozier dogwood, which offer interesting summer foilage and fall bark interest. Back a wide swath of phlox with daylilies; their contrasting foliage textures and summer bloom colors provide a bright summer look.

Other Places to Plant Phlox

4

Tuck Phlox subulata into any rock garden. Its low mounds will not overwhelm other rock plants, and its bright spring colors brighten any rocky slope.

5

Edge stone walls or other visually "hard" surfaces with phlox subulata. Before and after bloom, phlox mounds cascade over and soften rigid lines in landscaping.

6

Edge large planters with phlox subulata and fill the centers with spring bulbs. You will extend your spring color season. When bulb foliage dies back, refill the center with New Zealand impatiens, Gerbera daisies or other strong-hued annuals that can float over a soft sea of cascading green.