Can i prune creeping phlox

Tending Edible Gardens. Container Gardening. Container Plants. Container Design. Garden Design. Public Gardens. Private Gardens. Garden Designers. Plant Breeders. Home Gardeners. By Region. Interior West. Garden phlox is a good companion to other summer-blooming perennials, such as lilies, bee balm, rudbeckia, Shasta daisies, yarrow, clematis, and lilies.

The rigid and long trunks of the gardening phlox are very easy to place in a vase, where they complement and help support other flowers such as dahlias and lilies. Garden phlox Phlox paniculata , which grows 3 to 5 feet tall and is hardy in USDA zones 4 to 8, benefits from thinning early in the growing season.

Both Phlox varieties enjoy full sun, although vertical garden phlox can take some afternoon shade, particularly in the south. Similarly, if the plant arrives in a spring container, keep the container moist until the soil is ready for planting.

Hold spring planting until the soil is free of melting snow and ice and is easy to work. The most convenient in many cases is to make an inch of soil. If you have a tall phlox, cut the stems back to about 1 to 2 inches above the ground after the first killing frost in the fall. Check local frost dates. Divide tall garden phlox every 2 to 3 years to ensure healthy, disease-free plants.

To maintain your phlox tree, it is necessary to keep the foliage as dry as possible by applying water to the soil instead of the foliage. Spread a 2- to 3-inch layer of mulch around the plants to help the soil retain moisture. Garden phlox care also includes trimming the flower stems after the flowers fade.

This phlox flowers from late spring to early summer. Start to cut back flowering stems once half the blooms are spent. The leggy stems of Phlox subulata should be pruned in late spring after the blooms have faded.

After flowering, remove dead stems from your creeping moss phlox, according to Mississippi State University Extension. Carefully prune any stems sticking out above the plant to even out the plant. New growth makes up the top layer of creeping phlox. To get to the dying foliage, look beneath the green layer and prune away any dead stems. Pruning of both types of creeping phlox will encourage better bloom production, especially in the next year. Pruning will also help the plant to better spread.

Pruning is a vital part of caring for your creeping phlox. Creeping phlox is a mostly carefree plant that will not only serve as a ground cover but will also offer fragrance and interest to your garden. Moss phlox does well in full sun, according to the Old Farmer's Almanac.