Rock Garden Quarterly Summer 2012 - (Page 264)

Phlox muscoides (syn. P. bryoides) - Shoshone phlox A plant of the high desert, cold alpine tundra, Phlox muscoides makes hunched, white-matted domes. The high altitude habitat exposed to intense solar radiation, extreme wind speeds, and bare rock allows only for the survival of the most stalwart. Phlox muscoides, and its cantankerous silver foliage, was first named by English botanist Thomas Nuttall in his 1834 westward expedition. Shoshone phlox is very difficult to grow except in perfect alpine or rock garden conditions. It is extremely difficult to cultivate, a characteristic long-lamented. Phlox pulvinata - alpine phlox This prefers to plant its roots where it can score a good view – in the highest parts of the Rockies overlooking the plains and the Pacific. She is one of the first flowers to bloom in the spring, decorating the color-starved fell-field she inhabits with bunches of delicate whitelavender cushions: vivid next to the nearby sea-green and orange lichen. Although the alpine phlox lives above the timberline, it is one of the most adaptable of the high-altitude phlox species – a benefit for the below-the-timberline dwelling rock gardeners. Looking back at the past North American Rock Garden Society Seed Exchange lists, I was horrified to find a paucity of Phlox. In the 2011-2012 issue, only three cultivars of Phlox paniculata were offered; working backwards it is not until the 2007-2008 issue that P. drummondii appears to join P. paniculata - still by far a sparse spread. So, does this wonderful genus, one of versatility and stalwart Phlox pulvinata 264 Rock Garden Quarterly Vol. 70 (3)

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Rock Garden Quarterly Summer 2012

Digital Quarterly
Expanding Panayoti's Axioms
Photo Contest 2012
Photographing Alpine Plants: A Landscape Point of View
NARGS 2013 Election Timetable
Rock Gardening from Scratch - Seeds
Kim Blaxland and the Violets of North America
Viola pedata
Violas, Kim, and Us - A Celebration
Cooking Native Japanese Plants
Carl Gehenio Memorial Trough Show
Fire in the Hole: Phlox across Colorado
Rebuilding a Rock Garden in Pittsburgh
A Remarkable Garden: David Douglas and the Shrub-steppe of the Columbia Plateau
Bookshelf - Reviews
Swedish Dreams
Treasurer's Report
Bulletin Board
2012 - Eastern Study Weekend: October, Pittsburgh

Rock Garden Quarterly Summer 2012