According
to Hibberd, garden phloxes, as illustrated to the left,
had no proper existence as a species as they had been
derived from so many species.
Phloxes
came in many sizes and colours, but by late Victorian
times the white phlox was still of poor quality, and
as yet there were no blue, scarlet or yellow phloxes.
Gardeners
generally dotted phloxes about the garden rather than
growing them en masse: "A great lot of phloxes
in a lump, as it were, in the garden is like a mouthful
of honey - too rich to be enjoyable, and likely to choke
one."
Phloxes
were perennials, and best left to over-winter in the
ground. They needed to be renewed regularly, and fed
frequently. They could also be raised from seed - sown
into a pan (or box), and the emerging young plants kept
in a pit over winter. If the amateur didn't want to
go to that extreme, then the seeds could be sown in
spring and the young plants kept under glass until well
grown when they could be planted out to flower.
One
of its best attributes in the garden was its ability
to survive burning summers when much else failed.
