Have had a white phlox for over ten years and this year it now has light pink flowers.
Am pretty sure the phlox is Phlox paniculata 'White Admiral'. Keep all plant taggs.
Have certainly read of self-seeding by hybrid phlox producing colour changes back to parental types. But have also read that White Admiral is sterile. And also, all of the flowers on the plant, this year, are this light pink colour and there's never been anything but white flowers in all years before. Although the plant is in a work area of my garden, it's in a location where I believe I would have noticed seeding in the past.
For several years, I have been intending to dispose of the plant because is was always so prone to mildew, but this year there's no mildew (at least so far).
Phlox Question.
Since it appears that your phlox is the same plant and not a new volunteer from seed, I bet your hybrid phlox is reverting back to the color of a parent...
Makes sense Tabasco, but it's seems odd that it waited so long.
This year we had a quite unusually wet summer. Also, I've ignored the plant
ever since it was planted. Usually am dividing phlox periodically and upgrading soil, but am not that keen on white and have felt David was a better white phlox.
Could the PH in the soil have anything to do with it? Im not sure how it effects phlox, but well, some plants do take a hue change if the ph is off for the plant!
Here is one of my pinks, however I know it was pink to start with.. but just an idea anyway on the pH!
While I let my tall phlox do its own thing in open pollination, I have noticed that my later generation plants do vary in hues of pinks to purples to whites... Now mind you I started out with all purple and now have those colors popping up.
I did add David recently.
I just dont know where the bicolor (eyes) are coming from! Dont mind them at all!
Is it just me or is "David" terribly slow to grow? It didnt bloom this year for me, and barely put on over 8" of growth. I planted it from bareroot in the springtime. The other two were sold to me as Caroline Vandenburg (which I cant find any pics on) it was supposed to be blue, but is hot pink.
Danielle
My tall garden phlox seem to grow to jurassic porportions. Reaching nearly 5 feet tall. My soil is poor. I have them in shade or sun and I flood.
David seems to be slower to put out thanmy darker colors. While my pinks, purples, lavenders are going gang busters, the light pinks, with eyes and the white are slower to proliferate!
Dont know if its just us... but it could be!
Here is just a seed head.. dont know what color..but most of mine put out a good amount of seed. I think I am going to have to mark the whites for seed to be sure I get more of them.
garden addict
My David has been very slow to grow also. I bought dry roots and planted them last fall. They got about 8" tall this year, but they did bloom. Of the three I bought one did not survive. Maybe next year they will thicken and grow better.
Maybe the dry roots need more time .
I got some David in 4'' pots in trade here (Dave's) and they did great and bloomed twice. They seem to be about a foot shorter than my old fashion Phlox.
photo from july
Oh that is gorgeous. I hope mine get up like that. Did they have a nice fragrance as well?
Tried hard to remember ...smell... I just don't remember.
David smells like heaven and grows rapidly here in Michigan. The other best smelling one is Katherine, a lovely lavender with large flower heads. I get most of my phlox from Lazy SS. Never disappointed.
Anne
purpleice you have encouraged me such that I do believe I will try Katherine next year. I've had my eye on that one, love the color of Katherine in the sales catalogs. Thanks for your post!
SunnyBorders, I don't have an answer for what happened to your phlox, but I wanted to share that the same thing happened to me! I bought what was labeled as David many years ago. The first year, it bloomed pale pink with a dark pink eye! Hmm, that's obviously not David, I thought!
But it was pretty, so I kept it. Well, it had to be at least five years later, and all of a sudden, out of the blue, on the same plant, some of the blooms were white! That was about three years ago, and since then, some blooms are pink with a dark pink eye, and some are white!
So go figure! Who knows? I always thought it was a curious thing, but it never bothered me because I enjoy both blooms. I did divide some about five years ago (pre-white blooms) and those divisions are still just pink. I'm waiting to see if they will turn white too!
I wonder if they throw sports like roses and some bulb plants? You could have a new sport of David there!- a different color with all the same genes that make it a strong grower.
Just rediscovered this thread.
Thank you all for the interesting observations and suggestions.