Moss Phlox or Thrift Provides a Blanket of Spring Color

“Common” names often cause confusion about plant identity. The spring-flowering groundcover at my childhood home was always called Thrift. It wasn’t until I started working at a garden nursery that I learned that its true identity was Phlox subulata, pronounced FLOCKS sub-yoo-LAH-tah. Then a customer asked for Thrift but meant Armeria, also known as Thrift. The two Thrifts are completely unrelated. Armeria juniperifolia (juniper-leaved thrift) and Armeria maritima (sea thrift) grow up to one foot tall. One has sharp foliage like a juniper while the other has grassy-like foliage. Both are perennial in zones 4-9, and are salt-tolerant. Their flowers remind me of Scabiosa. The focus of today’s blog is Phlox subulata, an old-fashioned southern standby.

Phlox subulata is also known as Creeping Phlox, Moss Phlox, Rock Phlox, and Thrift. This evergreen perennial reaches only six inches tall, at most. It forms a tight mat of needle-like foliage that works well as a groundcover and is frequently used in combination with large rocks. The flowers are small (3/4 inch across, with five petals) but so numerous that they conceal the leaves, appearing like a blanket of color. Thrift is blooming right now in my area, with showy mats of pink, rose, white, light blue, or lavender flowers. It is often used on steep banks or slopes, where it will self-seed and spread to cover uneven terrain and prevent erosion. Give Thrift full sun or part sun in acidic soil. It requires little maintenance beyond a little thinning if it becomes so congested that it starts choking itself.

Phlox subulata is native to the US and will grow in zones 3-9. It is rarely bothered by insects or diseases. Deer do not normally browse Thrift; the flowers are favored by hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies.

I planted a couple of these Phlox subulata under a new redbud (Cercis chinensis ‘Don Egolf’) last year. The color of the flowers is a near-match to the color of the tree’s blooms. They flower at the same time, and are neighbors to a yellow Forsythia, which provides a nice color contrast.

This thick mat of Thrift (Phlox subulata) has spread to replace grasses or weeds that might have grown under this fence, eliminating hand-weeding or string-trimming.

Jewels for the Flower Garden

Talinum paniculatum, commonly known as Jewels of Opar, is a small succulent plant that can have a large impact in your garden. The chartreuse foliage contrasts beautifully with dark groundcovers like Ajuga ‘Black Scallop’ or Ajuga ‘Chocolate Chip,’ and looks great paired with purple petunias. Fine stems support small, pink flowers. The round purplish seed heads that follow are just as attractive as the flowers. It is now classified in the family Talinaceae, formerly Portulacaceae. Like members of the Portulaca family, established plants withstand both heat and drought.

Talinum is native in the warm southeastern U.S. (NC to FL) and Latin America. It is cold tender where I live (zone 7b), dying with the first hard freeze, but reseeds so readily that it functions as a perennial in the typical garden. It hardy in zones 9-11, and even into zone 8 if the winter is mild. If you want plants to reseed, do not remove the spent flowers and their resulting capsules. Each small, round seed capsule contains numerous, tiny black seeds. Seeds saved from the prior year can be scattered in spring where they are intended to grow as soon as the chance of frost is past. Any extras are easy to pull up.

Jewels of Opar tolerates a wide range of sunlight and soil fertility. For the brightest yellow-to-chartreuse leaf color, give plants partial shade. Full sun makes the leaves turn a darker green, while too much shade results in a weak, leggy plant Mature plants average 18-24 inches in height. Plants prefer a sandy, well-drained soil but tolerate clay well. Richer soils result in a taller plant. Leaves are reputed to be edible as a spinach or lettuce substitute, but I have not eaten any of them so I cannot offer an opinion.

In the dappled shade of crepe myrtles, Talinum (Jewels of Opar) offers a nice contrast to Ajuga and Hosta.

Flowers appear on thin stems

Talinum in a mixed bed of annuals

Lovely Loropetalum, Chinese Fringe Flower

Amidst all the warm colors of autumn leaves, the deep burgundy or wine-colored foliage of Loropetalum provides a wonderful contrast.

When Loropetalum became widespread in garden centers in the late 1980’s, their deep burgundy foliage and hot pink flowers immediately became popular. White flowered, green-leaf varieties exist, as do variegated leaf cultivars, but neither are as widely grown as the burgundy-leaf forms. Unfortunately, many of the early introductions grew much larger than their labeled mature heights. Warm nights and the long growing season of the southeast result in taller-than-anticipated shrubs. When used as foundation shrubs, these early introductions required aggressive pruning to restrict size. Several cultivars that were labeled at a three-foot maximum height grew five feet or taller. (If I sold you one of these during my sales stint in a garden nursery, please accept my apology. It was a mistake through ignorance, not malice.)

Shearing Loropetalum into tight orbs or square-edged hedges ruins the graceful arching shape. Taller cultivars (‘Zhuzhou Fuchsia’ is a robust one) can be limbed up to tree forms that rival Crape Myrtles, without the concrete-staining problems of Crape Myrtle seed-pods but also without the lovely exfoliating bark of the Myrtles.

Burgundy-leaf types can take on green tints in the hottest part of the summer. ‘Jazz Hands’ is a cultivar with variegated foliage. New growth is splashed with pink and white. With age, foliage shows less and less variegation, so plan to prune annually to force colorful new growth. The variegation shows best when seen up close, so site your specimens where they can strut their individuality.

Evergreen Loropetalum (pronounced lor-oh-PET-ah-lum) is hardy in zones 7-9. It is heat tolerant, easily transplanted, and not choosy as to soil type, although it may show chlorosis in alkaline soil. Avoid boggy soils. Established shrubs are drought tolerant. They are rarely browsed by deer.

Heaviest bloom occurs in spring, but flowers appear sporadically during other months. Similar to Witchhazel, Loropetalum flowers have strap-like petals that give rise to the common name Fringe Flower. All forms bloom on old growth, so if you trim to generate fresh variegation, be aware that flowering will be reduced.

Check plant labels before purchase to ensure the selected cultivar will suit the planned location. If your site is tight, assume shrubs may exceed the stated dimensions.

Strap-like flower petals look like tufts of fringe, leading to the common name Fringe Flower.

Unpruned shrubs have a lovely, arching stem structure.

Queen Anne's Lace

When a plant’s common name includes “weed” many people are hesitant to introduce them into a cultivated garden. But those same weeds can prove to be resilient, hardy, and attractive. Consider Butterfly Weed (Asclepias) or Iron Weed (Vernonia) as two examples. The downside of growing weeds is the possibility that they can be TOO resilient, even bordering on invasive. That is the case with today’s featured plant, Queen Anne’s Lace.

Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota, pronounced DAW-kus kar-OH-tah) has a fat, carrot-like tap root that helps it survive in hot, dry climates. It is quick to spring up in disturbed areas, and is listed as invasive in more than 20 states. Queen Anne’s Lace, also called Wild Carrot, Bee’s Nest or Devil’s Plague, is a biennial. It develops lacy basal foliage in its first year, then blooms second year. Mature plants range from 2-4 feet, with a narrow footprint. It is found in all the lower 48 states, in full sun to part shade.

Queen Anne’s Lace flowers are flat white umbrels up to four inches across with one little purple flower dot in the middle. If you place cut flowers’ stems in colored water (use a few drops of the same vegetable-based colors used in cake icing), the blooms rapidly take up the dye and will change from white to a pastel shade of the selected color. I thought every child had done this at least once, but it appears I was mistaken.

Spent flower heads curl up on the edges into a brown cup-like form that resembles a bird’s nest. They become brittle when dry. Winds break them off their stems, and they tumble about, spreading seeds far and wide. This promiscuous habit, along with their tolerance for any type soil and any pH, means that they spread everywhere unless consistently deadheaded. Cut stems stink but the smell wanes fast enough to enjoy them as cut flowers. I once had to resort to herbicide to rid a perennial bed of these, and have since decided to just enjoy them along roadsides. They are prolific in my area of the southeast. Bees and butterflies love the flowers, and swallowtail butterfly caterpillars eat the foliage.

Parts of the plants can be cooked and eaten in small quantities, but larger amounts are toxic. Contact with leaves and stems can cause dermatitis. Unless one in starving in the wilderness, I see to need to test out the toxicity threshold. If you feel the need to consume, be positive of your plant identification. Queen Anne’s Lace is easily confused with Wild Parsnip and Wild Hemlock. Consuming either of these can be deadly. Wild Hemlock is the plant that killed Socrates. Its stem has purple spots.

Note the single purple flower in the middle. Not every umbrell has this oddity.

A single plant, flowering in an undeveloped roadside.

A community of Queen Anne’s Lace shows how the plant can multiply into large communities.

Fall for Mexican Salvia

Members of the Salvia genus are beautiful and easily grown. Salvia leucantha, Mexican Salvia or Mexican Bush Sage, makes a great back-of-the-border plant, where its purple or purple/white bicolor flowers rise above shorter plants. They are a favorite of pollinators and bloom in the fall when other nectar producers are winding down. Mexican Salvia is tolerant of most soils (prefers neutral pH) and will withstand heat and drought. Early flowers will be all purple; later flowers will have purple calyces and white corollas. A pink form is available but I have not found it in local nurseries. Foliage has a gray tint. Flowering extends for weeks.

Salvia leucantha, pronounced SAL-vee-ah lew-KAN-thuh, is listed as an annual in Zones 6 and colder. An especially harsh winter may kill those in zones 7 or 8. Established plants have overwintered several years in the Mary Snoddy garden.

Plants may tower to six feet. ‘Santa Barbara’ cultivar is a dwarf, reaching only three feet. The taller forms may split or flop, so I recommend pruning them back by one-third around the first of July. Flowering may be delayed by a week or two but pruned plants will be shorter and bushier, which means more flowers and less staking (double win!). Shorter plants do well in containers. In the border, Mexican Salvia pairs well with yellow Lantanas or Black-Eyed Susans. Like other square-stemmed plants, it is easy to root from cuttings. Plant in full sun to mostly sun. 

Don’t confuse leucantha with Leucanthemum, Shasta Daisy. Also note that this is not an edible plant, despite the Sage moniker. Deer and rabbits pass this one by, which pollinators flock to it.

Go Big for Gomphrena

Visitors to my pollinator garden are all drawn to the same plant. Not the Gaura or Lantana, not the Cuphea or Bronze Fennel. The crowd favorite is Gomphrena, sometimes called Globe Amaranth. This heat-loving annual comes in several different colors, but purple is my favorite. The color is so intense that it glows, and it looks good with any other flower shades. Gomphrena also comes in lavender, white, rose, red, and bi-colors. Blooms resemble large clover flowers.

Gomphrena is easy to start from seed. If you have a greenhouse or other warm, sunny area, start the seeds 8 weeks before the average last spring frost date for your area. Seeds germinate best when barely covered with soil and given darkness. Once seeds sprout, expose them to bright light. They grow rapidly and start blooming while they are still tiny. Mine have shown flower buds when plants were just four inches tall. Grow Gomphrena in full sun and poor-to-average soil. Plants are drought-tolerant once established. They will bloom from spring all the way to frost. The stiff, papery flowers hold their color for weeks and weeks, and will even retain their bright shades if cut and dried soon after they open. Spent blooms will eventually fade to tan and should be removed.

Most varieties will reach 24 inches tall or more by the end of the growing season. ‘Buddy’ is a purple cultivar that reaches only 12 inches (per the seed catalogs; they reach 18 inches in the Mary Snoddy garden). The ‘Gnome’ series has white, pink, or purple blooms and reaches only 6 to 8 inches. ‘Strawberry Fields’ reaches 20 inches and has an orange-red flower. Plants can be pinched back when small to make them bunchier, but they look fine without this additional work.

Gomphrena looks great in many applications. Use them in containers, as single specimens, or planted in swaths. I think they pair well with Zinnias, Marigolds, or Lantana. Butterflies love the flowers and deer leave them alone. Double win!

Gomphrena,Melampodium,Liatris,Zinnia

Gomphrena along asphalt path

Long-blooming Cuphea

Cuphea is top of my list for long-blooming annuals. There are 250+ species within the genus, which is pronounced kew-FEE-uh. Despite their kinship, two that are widely grown don’t resemble one another: Vermillionaire™ and Bat-Faced.

Butterflies flock to the orange flowers of  Cuphea ‘Vermillionaire’ also called Firecracker Plant. The numerous flowers are look like tiny cigars. Cuphea llavea, “Bat-face Cuphea” has red petals and a purple calyx. In someone’s imagination, it resembles a bat’s face. Bat-face Cuphea looks especially good when paired with deep purple flowers like Petunia, Angelonia, or Periwinkle (the Catharanthus ‘Jams-N-Jellies’ series has a fabulous rich purple variety called “Blackberry”).

Heat-loving Cuphea originated in Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala. They are perennial in zones 9 or warmer, and are enjoyed as annuals in zones 8 and above. (That zone info came from the experts but mine has returned every year in zone 7b. They are located in a microclimate, adjacent to an asphalt drive which keeps the soil warm in winter.) Cupheas tolerate humidity and will withstand moderate drought once established, but look their best when they receive a little supplemental irrigation in the hottest parts of July and August. They are not picky as to soil type. They prefer full sun or mostly sun. They are rarely troubled by diseases, but Japanese Beetles caused significant damage to mine this year. They recovered quickly when the insects departed for parts unknown.

Either of these Cupheas can get leggy after a few months. In that case, prune a few stems back each week. They will branch and throw new buds. The cuttings can be rooted easily, but baby plants should spend their first winter in a frost-free area (greenhouse) before they go into their outdoor homes. They are easily started from seed and will rapidly grow large enough to plant out. Both the Cupheas mentioned above will perform as well in containers as in flower beds. They can be brought indoors as a houseplant in winter. Indoors, water lightly and provide the brightest light possible.

Does this look like a bat’s face to you? Me neither.

Cuphea Vermillionaire™

Winter Jasmine, The Earliest Flowers

Tubular yellow flowers are erupting on leafless shrubs here in the Carolinas’ piedmont. Winter Jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum, pronounced JAZ-men-um noo-duh-FLORE-um) blooms early, about the same time as Crocus. The 6-petal unscented flowers are similar in color and shape to Forsythia, but are smaller and fewer. Flowers appear before leaves, and open first at the bottoms of stems, progressing to the tips. The shrub’s weeping structure is similar to Forsythia, but stems are smaller in diameter and young stems have a greenish tint, even when dormant.

Red exterior of unopened Winter Jasmine buds.

Plants reach five feet in height. Like Forsythia, Winter Jasmine will spread aggressively unless controlled. Any stems that touch ground will take root. It flowers best in full sun but will tolerate shade, poor soil, and drought. Left alone, plants take on an unkept, thicket-like appearance after a few years. Remedy this with severe pruning as soon as the flowering season ends. I inherited an overgrown hedge of these plants when we bought a new home. They have encroached into the territory of a nearby row of boxwoods that I want to preserve, so in March I’ll cut the entire hedge to within a few inches of the soil and use a sharp spade to sever and remove the roots outside the target range.

Winter Jasmine stems are squarish in cross section, with four definite angles, while Forsythias are round. Tiny (less than an inch) compound leaves appear opposite on stems, which allows the gardener to distinguish it from Jasminum floridum, a visually similar plant with alternate leaves and the same messy haystack of stems.

Winter Jasmine is an excellent groundcover plant for slopes that would be difficult to mow. Its arching stems look like a waterfall cascading over walls . It is rarely damaged by deer, disease, or insects. It is hardy in zones 6 through 10

A hedge of Winter Jasmine, planted on a steep bank above a business parking lot. Perfect for this location.

The thicket-like growth of Winter Jasmine is evident here. The gray stems are dead and should be pruned out. Live stems are green.