Phlox ‘Candy Floss’

I love garden phlox, but many of the more colorful cultivars are susceptible to powdery mildew. I usually stick with the white ‘David’ because it rarely gets the disease.

Last summer I discovered a new collection of powdery-mildew-resistant phlox cultivars. What’s even more exciting about them is that they are all shorter and make great plants for the middle or front of the border.

Phlox paniculata ‘Candy Floss’ grows only 20 inches tall. It prefers full sun. I’m growing it in part-shade, but I haven’t had to to stake it up and it shows no sign of mildew. The pretty dark-pink flowers look great next to the purple spikes of liatris spicata (gayfeather).