The varieties I have don't seem to produce a lot of seed, but I have saved what I can get and sowed them very successfully. The seed isn't hard to find or work with - - just keep an eye on them and you'll see them developing.Ready to gather in the fall. Leave them on till they are brown.

I have received large "shares" in trades, so I do get the feeling some varieties/some people's locations/whatever produce LOTS of seed.

keyoard fried 3 keys stu-k new one ordered so pls -ear w/me.

I ha-e some neat photos I want to post of my phlox w/a tiger swallowtail -utterfly on it.

They are self seeding like -razy and I'm getting interesting -ariants. May-e 5 new -lumps, some not so good, and one stray on the other side of the sidewalk. I always pin-h them -a-k for more -looms if I re-ognize what I'-e got.

I'-e not tried to grow them from seed myself. My Da-id in another spot hasn't self sowed.

They do not all -loom at the same time. I k'ant post my photos -e-ause one of the stu-k letters is in my password. Lu-kily I was still logged in here.

My phlox i ought at a plant sale had a -right pink lg -loom and a smaller -loom w/an eye and lighter edge. From there I ha-e gotten some reprodu-e true and some -ariants, one of whi-h I like -ery mu-h.

If you are interested as soon as my new keyoard -omes Aug 5 or so, I will post a-out four photos I took of it; it was seeing the tiger swallowtail that thrilled me. Saw it again tonight so want to put a higher zoom lens on and hope to get some more good ones. They are skittery and fast -ut mar-elous to wat-h doing their taste test lol.

PS I'-e seen photos of phlo- on here I lo-e, think one is Laura. If they self sow so readily, it should -e easy enough to winter sow them. Oh and one has already finished -looming and set green seed pods, don't know what the ripe stage would -e.

bakemom,
My garden Phlox self sows like mad. I used to pot them up for plant swaps. But lately I have been pulling them out. Sometimes I get interesting colors, but for the most part they revert to that mauve color of the species.

I have phlox planned as my newbies for next WSing.

I missed it tonight, but I have one tiger swallowtail visitor, and it only likes the phlox. I can't get photos like I want but will keep trying, had my camera ready to try something different, watched but didn't see it today. The phlox will be done soon. At least I got one with open wings. Yesterday, I took 63 photos, and they are all duds except four I thought weren't too bad.

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Pretty pics Aliska! Both the Phlox and the butterfly...

I love Phlox and have winter-sown several native species - Phlox paniculata, maculata, and divaricata. Bought these seeds at Prairie Moon nursery. The P. paniculata which ranges from pink to lavender proved to be too aggressive, and it was invading the Monarda (!), so I moved it off to spot where I'm planning a "wild" garden. The P. maculata is 2 years old, waiting for it to bloom now. P. divaricata is somewhat slow growing and takes 2-3 years to bloom, but I was rewarded with lovely clouds of pastel blue/purple flowers this past Spring.

I love my cultivars of P. paniculata, 'Nora Leigh', 'David', and 'Tracey's Treasure', and they always seed around a little, but not nearly as much as the plain species. Some of the seedlings they make are quite nice and even appear to seed true. I transplanted several of the seedlings of David & TT last year and they are much bigger this year, and will be blooming soon, and I can't wait to see their true color.

Thanks, terrene. I was so thrilled to see that beautiful thing. Camera's been sitting out for 3 days now and guess it's done here. Did an errand and saw some pink like mine in full bloom yet, so I wonder why the difference in timing.

Thanks for suggesting Prairie Moon because I'd like more. They're easy. The bigger pink has gotten in with the Monarda, but for now they seem to be cooexisting peacefully.

I bought plain old white Monarda and wanted to yank it out. Well this year I decided to see what would happen if I pinched it back and got pretty green pincushions with white petals so guess I'll keep it.

I need to move my David as it's too crowded, in a spot that needs watering and didn't get any so bloomed but pathetic.

I hope you can post a few pictures of yours. This one is icky, but I noticed the parent ones are balled up now whereas earlier they're kind of pretty. When I got the plant at a sale, it turned out to have two kinds and an iris in it.

I notice most people only water their container plants around here. Anything else they have looks like mine. The hosta has brown leaves in spots but think they'll be ok. I will look up the ones you mentioned and thank you again for taking the trouble to explain. They sound really pretty.

I'm only including this picture because I don't like it but pretty variegated colors in the petals. But it looks like something is wrong with it, and something has chewed on that one leaf in the lower LH corner.

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I like the blue one at Prairie Moon. They didn't have a photo of paniculata.

I looked a couple places and found all kinds at Bluestone. Reds, purples, Laura can't remember all the different ones. They do have a mix but I don't trust I'll get exactly what I'd want.

The problem with them is most of their plants are in sets of 3, not all, and I have trouble finding enough room for some.

Here is a link that might be useful: Phlox at Bluestone Perennials

Aliska..did you go buy a new keyboard or have the other one repaired? It's not skipping letters now. Beautiful pictures. I will have to check my garden phlox and see if I can find any seedlings nearby. Nan, if you cut the bloom off, do they rebloom the same season? I have several blooms now that are done for and are looking kind of ugly. If they rebloom, that means I should wait till the next blooms dry up and save the seeds from those blooms? By that time, maybe it will be Sept. Nan, would you by any chance have a snapshot of what the bloom should look like and how to gather the seeds?
We got some much needed rain when I was preparing dinner, but we need way more. We put all the soaker hoses on this morning for about an hour.

Does anybody have the variety called Nicky? What about Blue Paradise? I've heard pros and cons about BP..but it sure is beautiful and I'd love to try growing it. Bluestone has it in their website I believe.

pippi, I had to get a new kb and already spilled just a small amt of hot fudge sauce I made on the space bar. Well, I took off the keypad and lucky I got it back on at all, can't get it seated right. But it works, just not quiet like the other keys. Knew I was playing with fire. Only $49 plus tax from apple online, wasn't on display, salesman had to hunt for one.

But the darn function keys are messed up. I thought it was something I did but after 2 days, I got the check box right and plugged in the old kb and the fn keys work right on the old, not the new. So I hope they have an update for this kb because I use the sound keys a lot. It's a newer generation, one key different, and didn't want wireless even if it would have been compatible.

I know I was being picky about my butterfly photos, am thrilled to have gotten anything, they look nice to me in small sizes, but bigger, you can see some blur & other things I'd like to get better. I saw some on pro photos, too, they flutter their wings so fast. But some of mine is you don't want to know, a combo of things.

Just blasted a fly on my numeric keypad with my hand. 0123456789=/ that seems ok. My, my reflexes are fast for pushing 70 here shortly. Sometimes I can catch stuff that falls in mid air.

I noticed my phlox have some round green globules, look like peas only about half, have to be seed pods but don't know when they are ripe, will look for brownish and like they're going to pop open. After seeing they attract butterflies (ignored my echinacea) and how easily they self seed, I'm rather enchanted with them. I think I will cheat and get some of the colors at BS and hope I live long enough to see some interesting crosses from the colors. I think that last photo I posted was a bad cross and ought to yank it so it doesn't keep crossing. I was surprised by the volunteers so don't know if they bloom the first summer or took 2 years.

Poor David was almost wilted away right under the sunroom windows where it dries out very fast so I gave it some water, forgot to check it today.

That's enough to trouble you with. I will be checking different phlox varieties. Mine look pretty spent now, wish I knew if they rebloom if you deadhead. Problem is I pinch when they're about 1 foot so I get more branching and blooms but take about 2 weeks longer to come into bloom. The Monarda didn't detectably cooperate with pinching other than giving me magnificent blooms compared to past 2 years.

Phlox p. seedpods explode when the seeds are ripe and shoot the seeds out like they were shot from a gun. Last year I harvested all the seedpods from my own + neighbors' plants, put them in a paper soup bowl and covered w/paper plate. When the seedpods explode, you can hear the seeds hitting the paper plate over top of the bowl. The light tan pod shells split neatly in half when they eject the seed.

Blue Paradise is blue--in shade or early morning before the sun hits them. Once they're in sun, the color changes to more of a purple. I shot this photo around 7 a.m. before the sun was up high enough to shine on the plant:

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That Blue Paradise is stunning!

Thanks, Sue. Question remains whether or not it will come true from seed. I harvested lots of phlox seeds last year but unfortunately kept them all together so it's a mix. The plants WS well and have grown but won't bloom until next year.

Question remains whether or not it will come true from seed.
I would be pretty sure it will not come true from seed. I really don't think any of them will. If I had beautiful named ones, I'd be deadheading long before there was a chance of them having mature seed and dropping it....or I would at least try to get them deadheaded in time.

Yes, when I deadhead I do get more blooms, then those blooms are the ones I keep an eye on for seed. Yes, the seed is pea-like, though smaller, and I usually only get maybe 6-8 off the entire plant.

The plants I am harvesting from are the native violet and a white/violet combo. So far, the flowers have all been violet.

I have a pretty reddish one and a pure white "david" but the deer got to both of those early in the season, they recovered, and the deer were back last week to finish the job. Just might recover but I am not all that hopeful..

NAncy

That is drop dead gorgeous. But it would be lavender for me for sure. If I want blue, I want it blue all day lol. Thanks for posting it; I saved it. I might try some anyway, am resigned to purple and it looks pretty good with yellow which I seem to have a lot of.

Boy, we had a nice rain, it did knock over some phlox but like the blooms are fresh again so I'm getting long bloom time with it.

And I found 2 cardinal flowers from wintersowing 2 winters ago I salvaged and potted up until I get around to planting it. That was a nice surprise. Now is a good time because it's going to be cool. I thought they were dianthus, but they are blooming in the plastic cups. One top got damaged and drooped so I snapped it off :-( but I could tell from the other one what it is.

But a rabbit has made a home back in under my baptisia, so I don't know what I've got it's eating. The neighborhood cats had kept the rabbits under control but I guess they're back.

And my daughter found a whole raccoon family on her deck. Man I'd love to photograph that but I don't like her bf and won't go near her place as long as he's there.

From seed, they all pretty quickly revert to something between magenta and mauve. If you have specific cultivars you like, propagation from cuttings is dead easy and will give you lots of plants per tray. You should punch them in late may or early June to make them bloom better anyway - just strip the bottom leaves, dip in rooting hormone and insert in damp soil. Keep damp, and inn the shade and you'll have rooted transplants in a month or two. I did this with several of mine some years ago and it worked great.

After seeing all these beautiful pics. I wonder if anyone can give me any general help with phlox. Several years ago my husband bought one plant and placed it on the east side of the house. It bloomed and was a beautiful pink, but the maple tree grew and it was too shaded and stopped blooming. I moved it to the front bed and it grew quite well, bloomed a couple of years and then stopped blooming. It continued to spread and I lifted it, split it and re-planted portions in three different sites in the back and front yards. That was about 3 years ago. The plants look healthy enough but not one bloom!! There are plants all around them blooming, but not a flower on the phlox. Any secrets? (I am thinking of ripping them out this fall).

I'm not real confident I'd recognize the leaves for sure on new plants. Those popcorn pods sound like fun but I'll stick mine in some rx bottles I've been saving to try to keep the colors straight even if they don't come back true.

I may try that Blue Paradise anyway if I can find one. It's so gorgeous.

I'm happy with my phlox, and it's like it was almost done now has come back strong. Was thrilled to see a hummingbird moth on it last night no chance to grab my camera and try to get a shot of that. One clump I didn't pinch back and will try to do so next year.

Also be sure to pinch your monarda back. Mine were really nice this year and I see that they did branch nicely (about 4 stems versus 1) to yield more flowers.

I wish I could help why your phlox aren't blooming. I'd give it one more year. Mine get not too much sun but bloom great on about 4 hours worth. Maybe sprinkle some bloom booster or compost. And pinch when they are about 1 foot tall. Just the tips.