How to Grow Drummond's Annual Phlox in the Garden and Points to Note

Annuals add interesting color and drama to the spring and summer garden. Drummond's phlox plants also offer intoxicating fragrance and deep red flowers. It is a small, compact plant that is easy to grow from seed under the right conditions. Try growing Drummond's phlox in flower beds, containers, or as part of a border. Their bright beauty and ease of care make them winning specimens for many applications.

Drummond's phlox plant (Phlox drummondii) is named after Thomas Drummond. He sent seeds from Texas to England, where their growing requirements began. Due to high rainfall and many soil types, the plants did not perform well in that region, but they remain very popular in the southwestern United States.

When you know how to grow annual phlox, you will have plants for a lifetime even if it disappears during the cool season. This is because the seed heads are easy to harvest, store, and plant indoors or outdoors. The seeds germinate in 10 to 30 days, sometimes providing spring flowers in early summer.

Colors can range from deep red to soft pink, depending on soil type and light. The deepest colors come from sandy soil with the brightest light. Newer varieties offer white, yellow, pink, and even lemon-green toned flowers. The leaves and stems are fine. The leaves are oval, lance-shaped, and alternate. The plant grows 8 to 24 inches (20 to 61 cm). The fruit is a dry capsule filled with many small seeds. Annual phlox flowers little because they are drought tolerant and can flower fully in full sun to partial shade. How to grow annual phlox on plants: phlox fruit, then prepare to harvest. Remove them when dry and split them open over a container to catch the seeds.

You can store them in an airtight container in a cool, dark place until spring. Plant the seeds indoors before the last frost, or in a prepared bed outdoors after all danger of frost has passed. A full sun or partial shade location can be used for growing Drummond's phlox. The soil should be on the sandy side and well-drained. Keep seedlings moderately moist as they mature. Annual phlox information also notes that plants can be propagated by herbaceous stem cuttings. Annual phlox care: annual phlox should be kept slightly moist. It is drought tolerant for short periods, but extreme drought leads to reduced flower production. The flowers are self-cleaning, with petals falling off naturally and leaving the calyx to become a seed pod.

The plants thrive even in low-nutrient soil and do not need fertilizer. They also do not need pinching and naturally form dense, small bushy plants full of flowers. In fact, annual phlox is an effortless plant that will scent the garden, attract butterflies and bees, and its fruit is attractive food for some birds.