Phlox 'PPPHL0623'

Summary

These three cultivars of groundcover or moss phlox will be discussed together, since their results were very similar.  After our generously wet winter they showed promise early in the spring with a nice flower show, but they soon succumbed to the heat and infrequent irrigation regime.  No analysis of growth parameters between treatments was possible due to mortality across treatments for all three cultivars that ranged from 33-100%.  Since all mortality was after the onset of treatments, our assumption is that these phlox cultivars do not develop extensive enough root systems to withstand a deficit irrigation schedule with infrequent application.  This supposition is supported by the observation that after an irrigation event, a plant that had almost completely died sometimes sent up a new leaf or two. However, because of their very poor performance, we cannot recommend these plants in a deficit irrigation application; they may perform better on shallower, more frequent irrigation.  Anecdotally, one or two of each cultivar of these were also planted in a demonstration garden bed in Stockton that received weekly irrigation at about 50% ET₀, and they performed acceptably without the mortality we observed in our field trial.

Growth and Quality Data

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