Tall Garden Phlox wilting What's up?

13 years ago

My white "david" tall phlox bloomed beautifully but then the leaves started to wilt and dry up. I cut off the affected stems but soon the whole plant was like that. I have a drip system so I know it was not due to lack of water. It gets lots of sun and is not crowded. Anyone have some advice for me?

Thanks, faye

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Comments (5)

Annie
13 years ago
Varmints!

I had voles take out one clump of my purple phlox last week.
Dig down carefully and see if the roots are intact.
It might be a disease, but most likely some kind of rodent.
They have a decided sweet tooth. Phlox and roses are sweet through and through and voles love their roots. They will also eat tulip bulbs. I plant daffodils around my tulips for protection. Daffs are poisonous, so the voles leave them alone. Little buggers!

Whatever is causing it, I sure hope you discover it soon.

Solution for your phlox? Bury roofing paper down in the ground around their roots or a bottomless black plastic pot. Use one big enough to accommodate their root ball size so you don't cramp their growth. The rodents will dig through the earth and run smack dab into that and go around it. That is the only thing that has ever helped me save mine.

~Annie
ianna
13 years ago
look for root rot.
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If you cut the heads off of tall Phlox paniculata, often they will send out side shoots to bloom some more. If you cut them down, you will loose out on any of that extra blooming but it probably would not hurt the plants if you want to clean up the garden. It seems a bit early to me, however, to be doing this but whatever. I have never heard of burying the seedheads to get more phlox, as the seeds may not be ripe yet, and then I think they would just rot in the ground. If you cut them off the seeds will not ripen either. Even if they do come up, you are not guaranteed what color you will get as they don't come true from seed. If you want the same color, you should dig and divide your plants and replant where you want them. If you move the small plants now and relocate them, they will probably survive, and grow and may bloom next year if they are old enough to bloom.
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organic_kitten
13 years ago
It is the grasshoppers here! They eat everything. I take great delight in stomping on any of them I find.

Don't go feeling all sad for the voracious creatures. I found them eating my daffodil bulbs with the pink centers!!!

kay
Annie
13 years ago
My grandsons, my son & I enjoy catching grasshoppers and giving them to the chickens. The boys delight in seeing the chickens chase after them. They are top on their list of favorite foods. Wish I could let them loose in the yard right now. Everything growing in the gardens has grasshopper holes and is chewed up. They haven't turned on us yet, but there have been some years that they've done that too!

~Annie

(I still think you have an underground rodent problem.)
organic_kitten
13 years ago
See Annie,

I keep telling DH I need a couple of chickens! They could eat the dratted grasshoppers.
kay

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Tall Garden Phlox wilting What's up?

Comments (5)

Annie

ianna

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