Fort Hill Creeping Phlox

If easy gardening is your goal, and spring flowers your love, then you must plant the Fort Hill Creeping Phlox. This classic plant, a selection of an American wild-flower, was once widely grown, but has slipped a little since so many new plants arrived to catch our interest. Each spring, though, you will be so glad you didn’t forget it, when you see those sheets of wonderful pink flowers cascading down slopes, spilling over walls, creeping onto paths and patios, and generally bringing happiness to your garden. Even when the blooming of this low, mounding plant is over, the needle-like bright-green leaves are charming features, always attractive and always evergreen, even in cold zones. Easy to grow, generally trouble-free and always attractive, the foliage disappears in spring when the many small, star-shaped flowers open to show us their glorious pinkness, highlighted by a bright center of deep red. In bloom for up to a month, from the middle of spring on, the fragrance of this plant will charm you, and so will the profusion of butterflies and even hummingbirds it attracts. Big plants are one thing, but a small plant this glorious can never be overlooked.

• Mounding plant just a few inches tall and 18 inches wide
• Fragrant pink blooms last for weeks through spring
• Bright green foliage is evergreen and always attractive
• Perfect on slopes, in rocky places and the front of garden beds
• Deer, drought and salt resistant

Plant the Fort Hill Creeping Phlox in full sun for maximum flowering and dense plants. Grow it in any well-drained soil, including rocky soils and alkaline ones too. Add a little organic material when planting to give it a good start, and water for a while until it becomes established. Then it is drought resistant – enough to make it invaluable in xeric gardens and wild places, since it is a selection of a native plant. It isn’t bothered by pests or diseases, deer, or even salt spray, so plant it in coastal areas too. A light trim with shears as soon as the flowers fade is all the care needed, and that keeps it dense, bushy, and sure to flower profusely the next spring. Don’t trim at other times of the year.