Creeping Phlox: Uses in the Garden

If you're like me you're a sucker for phlox in the spring time. I've seen photos of phlox completely covering hillsides and it looks just like a painting, wouldn't it be cool to mimic that idea in your own garden? Maybe just on a small scale though because once the phlox blooms in the spring all you see is green foliage. The green may make for a nice ground cover but the blooms are really the most attractive feature. Over the last couple years I've been adding phlox from the discount rack and from propagation to various areas of the garden.

Here's how I've used creeping phlox (Phlox subulata) in my garden:

The mailbox garden phlox consists of two kinds: one pale blue and the other closer to purple. As they grow I hope to expand them outward toward the curb and have them overflow just slightly.

I really enjoy seeing bulbs coming up through other plants and I tried to accomplish that idea with these daffodils coming up through the phlox.

One of the first places I planted phlox was along our sidewalk garden. It's actually covering a decorative rock that probably needs moved since you can't even see it now! The phlox on the left (the smaller one) came from a cutting.

I took this photo today of the phlox and tulips. It's kind of the ant's eye view perspective. The purple phlox blends very well with the 'Negrita' and 'Shirley' tulips.

While different this phlox and spirea combination works, at least I think it does!

 
This phlox in the birdbath garden is very spotty. It's grown together with some mums to the point that it would be very difficult to separate them.

The other place I like using phlox is between rocks along garden bed borders. Creeping phlox is one of those plants that lends itself very easily to rock walls and borders. Here in the front porch garden I purposely left gaps in the border for the phlox to grow through. The effect won't be complete until next year after the plants get one more year of growth.

After the creeping phlox has finished blooming for the year I plan to make more phlox cuttings to help fill in gaps in the phlox all over the garden. I would love to have an area like this in my garden:

My parent's have gradually filled in this area with phlox and it is almost complete!