Each bright pink flower on this tall garden phlox carries a white starburst at the center. Phlox paniculata Luminary® 'Pink Lightning' grows 30 to 36 inches tall and 24 to 30 inches wide in full sun or part sun, hardy from Zone 3 through Zone 8, and fills out over its second summer.
Pink Lightning reblooms into late summer, its leaves stayed mildew-free through September in breeder trials, and it handles dry spells once established.
Tall garden phlox has been a midsummer standby in perennial borders for generations, and its classic complaint is powdery mildew graying the leaves by August. The Luminary series came out of Walters Gardens' trials, picked for dark leaves that stay clean through the season and for a sweet fragrance. Each flower is a narrow tube with nectar at the bottom, a shape made for long tongues, so swallowtails, hummingbird moths and hummingbirds come to them. The species, Phlox paniculata, is native to the eastern and central United States. Plants die back in winter, return from the roots in spring, and the stems make good cut flowers. Even mildew-resistant phlox stay cleanest with space between plants and air moving freely through the stems.
