[Guest]

Was visiting my garden store yesterday and they have lots of creeping phlox on sale. They look pretty nice and have very colorful flowers. I was a bit worried about the 8" height characteristic, however. Do these plants look good and work on garden railroads? Do the get too big and look "out of scale"? I'd welcome comments from anyone who has this plant on your layout.

Ed

 

[markperr]

Ed;

Phlox add a beautiful burst of color in the springtime and then maintaim a green hedge type of look throughout the rest of the year. They are an invasive plant (thus the term "creeping", I suppose) and you will find yourself trimming them back several times a season. They are by far, the most commented about plant in my front layout. I'm debating putting them in my back layout but I'll be a little more judicious where I place them.

Mark

 

[Guest]

Mark,

Do you have any photos of the phlox in your layout that you can post here so I can see how they look in a railroad scene?

Thanks,

Ed

 

[suleski]

Phlox is a great ground cover on my railroad. Weeds/grasses don't grow through it like other ground covers.
But it will take over the rails if you don't keep trimming it. I just plant the trimmings elsewhere and they take hold.

Scott

 

[Guest]

I don't have any good photos of them on my GRR, but did plant last year (just a few) and they did good until "Global Warming" aka as Summer in the South killed them off!

they look real nice, adds color-not scale mind you, but pretty!

cale

 

[SandyR]

I use them, too. They like really good drainage, so all of mine are planted on slopes. Prune them back after flowering, to keep them from getting too woody. They are easy to start from cuttings, so you can always increase your stock. Wish I had some pictures of mine...they come in white, light purple, and rose. Some years, mine suffer winter burn, but they always come back in time to bloom in May or so.
SandyR