A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Plants and Flowers Forum Tall Garden Flox and pruning?

Three years ago I planted Tall Garden Flox. They are in nearly full sun, get an average amount of water (I water when we don't have enough rain) and I feed Miracle Grow every couple of weeks starting as soon as I see shoots coming up. They always start out looking healthy and blooming well. I have been "deadheading" them as soon as the flowerheads died off, leaving the flower stalk and just nipping off the flower head itself.

The problem is, after blooming well and looking great for the first three weeks, the plant starts looking leggy and rather scruffy. The old flowerstalks sometimes send out shoots to the side and rebloom, but more often than not, the bottom part of the stalk seems to "die", the leaves turn brown and dry up and look horrible, even though the flowerheads are still blooming.

Am I pruning wrong? Am I supposed to be pruning them at all? Because just leaving the dead flower heads there seems to make it even worse. Are they getting too much sun? Am I not watering enough or too much? Am I overfeeding? Help!

My mom has a lot of Phlox....and although I've never grown it myself I know that whatever kind she has just blooms pretty much early in the spring and then that's it pretty much for the year....that's why I don't have any.

I'd snip off the stalk and all when you are deadheading them. I'd think though what you are seeing with the scruffiness and such is just because it is done it's blooming period.

The like to be watered routinely, and it's best if you water from the base and avoid getting the actual leaves/flowers wet. Once in a while you might get a second unexpected flush of blooms---but more often than not you just get a one shot deal with them. Biggest problems with them are powdery mildew and spider mites.

They do get a a funky powdered look to the leaves after the first few weeks, is that powder mildew and how do I treat it? The plant tag said they are supposed to bloom all summer, and really, they do keep blooming, just the bottom half of the plant looks leggy and scruffy. Actually, they bloomed well up into September last year, but it was a long, hot summer in this area.

This was at the start of the season last year. Was too ashamed of them to take pictures of them during the summer.

Those are gorgeous!! I will have to have some this year.. And it is perennial? Yay!

They sure are, I planted them in '05. This is what they look like right now:



I think they usually start blooming at the end of this month. Maybe the first of May.

I don't prune my phlox at all. I cut some flowers to bring in occasionally. I find that tall phlox is like clemantis in that they like their roots shaded. Mine are in a bed with other tall plants that bloom at different times. The other plants shade their roots. I have root shoots that travel and come up about 10" to 18" away from the mother plant. I dig them out and put them in planters or give them away. I'm pretty sure they would not like gravel around them. I think that would only radiate heat to the roots instead of the coolness of shade. Hope this helps!

Once mine stop blooming, I cut the stalks down to about 4 inches. Within a couple of weeks you get new growth that looks much nicer. I do the same with my bee balm.