In early May it was clear that two of my butterfly bushes were not going to sprout leaves. Winter was just too harsh for them. I bought a ‘Volcano Purple’ Phlox to take their place in the garden. I wasn’t expecting much from the plant this first year, but wow, am I ever impressed with it.
‘Volcano Purple’ grows about 24 inches tall. It’s loaded with purple flowers with a contrasting white eye, and was bred to be sturdy and tolerant of powdery mildew.
My plant started blooming in late June. For about 4 weeks it put on a beautiful display. At the end of July I cut it back and it has already sprung back to life and given me a second flush of blooms. Lately we’ve had beautiful dry days in the 70s but fog almost every night. That’s perfect powdery mildew weather. Most of my other phlox plants have white blotches on the leaves, but not ‘Volcano Purple.’
There are several other colors available in the Volcano series including pink with a white eye, pink with a red eye, red, ruby and white . As soon as I can find them for sale I’m going to add more of these wonderful plants to my garden.
(Pictured above is ‘Zinnia Sun Cherry’ with ‘Volcano Purple’ Phlox in the background.)