PlantFiles: Garden Phlox
Phlox paniculata 'David'

I am always looking for wonderful plants to add to my garden. I have one major issue - deer. How does this plant do with deer roaming the yard?

Thanks,
Sean

Beautiful white blooms really brighten an area. Blooms July-September in my garden.

Lovely and easy. All I do is water from a drip line once in awhile and it gets to 4 feet with loads of flowers. This year I have to pay more attention to the seed heads, though...I have "David" coming up all over the garden right now.

Mine has not grown as tall as indicated but its gotten slowly bigger over the years and the blooms are a beautiful bright white. No mildew in my zone 4a garden.

When I lived in IL, I grew David garden phlox without any problems. Growing it in TN where I now live, I try to fight the mildew problems, but have not had success. I will thin them this year to see if I can eradicate the mildew. I still love this cultivar!

This is one of my very favorite plants! Grows up to four feet high with little or no care. Wonderful fragrance! No diseases at all. Blooms seven weeks, incredible. Highest recommendation.

Maybe I'm just too impatient. In the two years that I had David in my yard, it never got more than 10" tall, and only had a single stem and a single bloom cluster. After devoting lots of space anticipating that it would fill out and get taller/wider, I got tired of waiting on it and David was escorted to the compost pile. Foliage was healthy, just stayed very tiny. When I yanked it, there was not an extensive root system, just something like a single taproot.

Absolutely indestructible..withstands drought..very little if any mildew..always blooms through the summer. About 3-4' in my yard in average Georgia clay.

This plant makes me happy! I have a 50 year old specimen in my front yard, around it are yellow roses and white begonias. Pest free, disease free, the only issue are the HUGE mop heads that need staking. I fertilize with a high nitrogen food every two weeks, and got stunning results.

When I arrived at the nursery last weekend in the distance, I saw miniature clouds and immediately asked an employee what kind of flower I was looking at. The billowing white blossoms were those of David. I was smitten, and purchased one for my own garden. The scent is subtle, sweet and lovely. I planted it next to a pair of amazingly proflic and beautiful wine and white colored moscheutos shrubs. Also nearby is purple setcreasea. The tall, pretty cloud of phlox looks great next to the huge disc sized hibiscus blooms.

I live on a street called Whitebud Dr, and either ironically or intentionally most of the landscaping plants on our street are white: azaleas, dogwood, yucca, candytuft as groundcover, crepe myrtle, gardenia, and so on. I decided to try to make white the predominant color in my garden to play into the "Whitebud" theme, and so if my newly purchased David does well I would love to purchase a few more for pillowy presence. Beautiful!

Absolutely love this plant! I look forward to the tall, fragrant blooms mid to late summer. Never had a problem with powdery mildew or having to stake the rather stately, top heavy stems. Plus once the initial bloom is over, there is usually a smaller rebloom right after. My plant gets a little partial shade in late afternoon but doesn't seem to mind. I can highly recommend David to anyone looking for a mid-to late summer white blooming (fragrant!) flower.

This is a wonderful fragrant phlox.
Although this phlox is touted to resist mildew I still try to avoid overhead watering.
For better-branched plants, try pinching out the tips of the phlox when they are about 9 inches high. THE Best

This is a very large plant, growing to 4 feet. Nice large trusses of pure white bloosoms. No problems other than some of the stems are sometimes knocked down by heavy rain and winds. Mine is growing in part shade, next to a white spruce.

Lovely cultivar. Reportedly resistant to powdery mildew, but its a good idea to give this plant plenty of room for air circulation and to keep it thinned to 5 or so major stems. Also, water at the base instead of overhead. Deadhead for a long bloom period.

This is one of the sweetest fragances I have ever enjoyed. The blooms are long lasting clusters at the top of a tall stem. They are exellant for attracting butterflies.
Companion plants: Rudbeckia, Coreopsis and Veronica.
Prefers well drained, consistent soil.

A lovely, strong plant with huge clusters of disk shaped white flowers. It shows good resistance to mildew, although watering at the base is still recommended as with all paniculata cultivars. Overhead watering promotes the incidence of powdery mildew as do afternoon and evening rains.
For optimum growth and flowering in the summer, Phlox should have plenty of fertilizer and water. Although some years I was unable to give them any special attention at all, the "Davids" still grew beautifully as other cultivars limped along.
Deadhead to prolong the bloom period. This plant, if allowed, will self seed freely, and being white I was never concerned about inferior colors in the offspring - just happy to have more of them.
When I grew them at my old home in Zone 5a, they preferred full sun, although many books on herbaceous ornamental plants say they will do well in partial shade too.
They will need to be staked and should be protected from the wind as they are unable to hold up their huge, heavy heads without a bit of assistance.
I now live too far south to enjoy this plant, but for all of you in the proper zones, this beauty is a wonderful, strong addition to any garden.