Creeping Phlox

Ce couvre-sol a des fleurs agréables qui apparaissent dans des tons pastel.

This ground cover has pleasant flowers that appear in pastel hues. Growing this sturdy, low-maintenance plant is possible in USDA Zones 3-8, it is the plant that can be used in landscaping to hide the unsightly slope or other difficult areas as it rambles between rocks or cascades down. It can also be used as a bordering plant around the flowerbeds.

Creeping phlox is a familiar spring-blooming creeping plant that is frequently seen in rock gardens, growing from crevices in stone walls, or planted as a ground cover to blanket areas of the ground. Surely the best feature of creeping phlox is its flower production. Not only are the individual blooms pretty, but there are also so many of them that the display is truly something special to behold. The flowers are so densely packed that it can be hard to make out the plants' foliage from a distance; once blooming is completed, the tiny leaves remain green for much of the year.

A plant that attracts butterflies, creeping phlox is a splendid choice for butterfly gardens. Luckily, deer are less likely to eat this plant than many others, qualifying it as a relatively deer-resistant ground cover.

• Botanical name: Phlox subulata

• Common name: Creeping phlox is sometimes known as "moss pink" or "moss phlox," based on its growth habit.

• Plant type: Often listed as an herbaceous perennial (although it is semi-evergreen). Related to the familiar upright garden phlox (P. paniculata).

• Mature size: Creeping phlox plants reach, at most, 6 inches in height and can spread out up to 2 feet to form a mat across the soil surface.

• Sun exposure: A slope that faces in a southerly direction is ideal since these perennials do grow best in full sun.

• Soil: Creeping phlox plants do best in evenly moist but well-drained soils rich in humus or compost. The plants do fairly well in clay soil.

• Bloom time: Spring

• Flower color: Red, white, blue, rose, lavender, purple, and variegated, in addition to the signature pink color.

• Hardiness zones: This plant grows in zones 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9.

• Native area: Indigenous to eastern and central portions of the U.S.