PlantFiles: Creeping Phlox, Moss Phlox
Phlox subulata

One of my absolute favorite spring flowers, I have loved this plant since I was a little girl. My parents had it covering a huge hill in their Pennsylvania driveway that looked breathtaking once winter eased up and the enbankment became a carpet of dense color. My mom has always called creeping phlox by the name "Mountain Pinks" (maybe because they turned the big hill completely pink!) and so that is how I've known them until I got out on my own and started my own garden here in NC.

I've got creeping phlox in several areas of my garden that I had planted last year and I can't wait for it to keep spreading. It's impressively floriferous and a beautiful complement to spring bulbs. Definitely recommended- it's a low maintenence joy!

I needed something to replace an obnoxious yucca plant that we dug up around our pond. I planted three different colors of phlox last spring (06) and have been amazed at how much they spread on one year. They add so much beauty to our pond and are virtually maintenence free....which we needed with two little ones to take care of.

Hear in Brooklyn, NY this plant is great! I have had it for three years now. It is spreading like crazy. I put it under my 5 ft tall Yucca Rostrata along with another great evergreen Rohdea Japonica. They look so tropical together in the "dead of winter"! Anybody thinking of this plant for the northeastern USA..... Do it!

I uploaded a pic showing a close-up of an unknown cultivar. As all the creeping phlox, they do well for me and are evergreen in my zone. These plants are absolutely care-free and pest and disease reisistant.

Blooms late April to late May in my garden.

I love Creeping Phlox, but wish it grew a bit faster. My information says it is hardy in zones 2-10. Cut back to 3 inches in spring to encourage new growth.

Perfect underplanting for bulbs. We've always loved the blooming period. Benefits from light shearing when it's finished blooming - you get a whole new bunch of lush green foliage. When the cooler rainier weather started in the fall, the phlox valiantly tried to bloom again! We have it several colors.

Mine are on the bank of a driveway and in my rock garden so they show up much nicer than if they were on level ground. They keep spreading, although once I had some die-off, but they recovered in that area. It is so funny to have some folks say they do well in full hot sun and others in shadier areas. My property is quite shady and rainy but they do great here.

This plant blooms so intensly in early to mid Spring that you can barely see the foliage. I bought a Phlox Subulata in the reduced section of a supermarket in my area for $1.50AU. The plant had seen better days as it was in dry soil, it was wilted and it looked as if someone has tried to pull it out of its pot. It is now blooming and almost everyone who comes to our house comments on its intense pink colour. I am going to buy some white ones and more pink ones as well. Right now its is growing in clay soil. I can't believe it. pokerboy.

I love this plant, too. We have a lot of granite boulders here in our garden and we have planted this to grow among and over the rocks. It is one of the first to bloom in the spring and the waves of color are a beautiful thing. The butterflies seem to like it, too.

I love this beautiful plant. I made a Little hill on one side of my drive way , the front of this area begans with a 3 foot rail fence ,a large Pink Bougainvillea drapes over the fence , than I planted my lavender Creeping Phlox with a couple of white rocks in them. Theres is a Pink Crape Myrtle tree behind . When the phlox are in bloom that area is just beautiful. I had people stop and tell how pretty that area was.

This summer after it was so hot , grass kind of took over and it got weedy looking so I had my husband use the weed eater on them BIG mistake. now most of it has died out and still have grass in it. So I'm taking it all including the dirt. Going to spread some grass killer down over it than after a week or so after all grass is gone going to put dirt back in and start over, wish me luck, I just love creeping Phlox. I also wanted to add that I'm in Fort Worth Texas so I know this plant goes well here.It loves the sun.

Creeping Phlox loves full sun, flowers profusely in the spring, requires minimal care/watering/soil requirements & although weeds can grow within the mat the Creeping Phlox forms, it's a simple a matter of pulling out the few that I do get.

Indeed, the flowers are close to the ground & one would have to be on hands & knees to get a close-up look, but it is sold as a ground cover, edging plant or for rock garden's & it does perfectly well in those situations & for the purpose that was intended for this plant.

I'm in zone 6 a/b in Southern Ontario & Creeping Phlox does very well for me in soil that has been amended with plenty of store bought cattle manure although this isn't a requirement.

If there's one thing that I don't care for about it, it's that this is an early blooming perennial (May/June) & once the bloom fades, it is simply a mat of foliage. It's the promise of next spring & the striking mat of color that prevents me from taking it out.

Creeping Phlox benefits from a "haircut" or light shearing after it has bloomed & should never be cut-back to the ground in the spring, fall or anytime as this may kill the plant. However, trimming the edges where it may be out-growing it's space is perfectly fine & snipping off any dead bits from winter kill is fine as well.

Although it is a pretty plant, I found it flowers sparsely and is too low to the ground to be appreciated. Mine was grown in full sun and seemed to dislike it. I think they do better in partial sun to partial shade, and do not seem to like drought. Watering well produces the best plants. Not bothered by insects or diseases, but bothered by weeds because of shallow roots. Shallow roots also make hand-pulling problematic. Not the best plant, but not the worst.

Our garden is in South Bavaria, 160 Km south-west of Munich. We had a very hard winter, dry and with the temperature under minus 20 Celsius for a number of weeks. The Creeping Phlox seems to have loved it! Amazingly enough, all three plantings, all in quite different situations around the garden, have bloomed this spring as never before. Just beautiful. Was it the dryness or the cold? Who knows?

Moss pink is an eastern species of phlox whose evergreen foliage, made up of tiny needle-like leaves 1/4 to 1/2 inch long, is attractive even in winter. The plant is spectacular when it flowers in spring, forming a dense carpet of color. This species thrives in full sun in almost any well-drained soil. Little maintenance is needed. It is hardy to -40° and does well in full sun in Zones 3-9. Pests and diseases are seldom a problem.