Is there a creeping phlox (thrift) that is a true red instead of purple or pink?
red creeping phlox?
I am going to say no. I bought the one called Red Flame before it bloomed and it is definitely more magenta pink.
ah well, perhaps it is like trying to breed a blue rose. Lavendar is the closest they get.
I have trouble growing the white ones but have bountiful amounts of many other colors.
Edited to say: WRONG PICTURE! That's a corydalis lutea.
This message was edited Apr 22, 2010 12:05 PM
Lol, I went out to get a better pic of it. It is blooming better now. It's been raining for a few days and it actually started raining right after I got the picture. :) I had wondered the same thing when I bought it.
This is the one I think they call red. BEV
That really gets me how so many catalogs call hot pink flowers red. With creeping phlox and rose of sharon, I've seen red, white, and blue collections sold as patriotic collections, but pink, white, and lavender just don't come off as patriotic, LOL.
I did see a deep red crape myrtle a few years ago. I'd love to own it but haven't found it yet.
Have you folks ever tried any of the Silene genus? Native wildflowers, various heights, that bloom a true scarlet. My fav is Silene virginica; it's short, flowers its little heart out with brilliant true red flowers. Try them if you're dying for true red like I was-
Ruth
Hi neighbor! I'm over in Transylvania county. Does silene need full sun? I have a lot of shade except for a couple of isolated areas.
Those Silene virginica are supposed to do well in part shade, so I have to agree that's a great idea! :) I planted a couple and one didn't come back after winter and the other hung on a couple years. Now I don't have any, I think they like moist well-drained soil and I only gave them my native soil which is sandy and dries out sometimes in summer.
I see those red catchfly in the wild sometimes, they are a striking, true red. I've never tried one in the garden, I bet they're more floriferous when cultivated.
Hi, woodspirit; great to meet a neighbor online! My silene virginica have done best with about half a day of sun; full sun in this area seems to fade the bloom color just a bit.
As for perennializing, Meredith, I also lost the first batch of s. virginica when they failed to come back the next spring. Since then, I read somewhere that they can literally flower themselves to death; and from the number of blooms they produce, I could well believe it. I now deadhead just as the flowers pass their peak, and this has kept them coming back the following year. Now mind you, that's a lot of deadheading (usually 50 and often many more small flowers per short little plant), lol, and they're in a price category where I could understand just treating them as an annual. But they are a delightful little explosion of pure red in the garden.
This year I'm trying a couple silene regia (much taller form from the prairie states); wish me luck!
Ruth
Thanks for the tips! I have some Silene regia too. I grew mine from seed. They are not the easiest to grow from seed and they took 3 years to flower. I have someseedlings going now, from seeds I collected from my garden. Hummingbirds love them!
Wow, Meredith, three years to first flowering is long. Glad to know I'll need to be patient, though the ones I ordered online are probably from cuttings. The hummers love the S. virginica also. They'll continue hovering on its blooms even when I'm working very nearby: great fun. Also have a couple seedlings I started at end of winter of silene lacinata; taller than virginica, much shorter than regia, also supposed to have scarlet blooms. These guys are fun.
Ruth
I'll have to look those up!