Pink-purple flowers open in fragrant clusters on this tall garden phlox through summer. Phlox paniculata Luminary® 'Evening Glow' grows 32 to 36 inches tall and 38 to 42 inches wide in full sun to part sun, hardy from Zone 3 through Zone 8, and takes two or three summers to reach full width.
The plant is well branched and upright, and wider than it is tall at maturity.
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.
At up to 3 1/2 feet across, a single plant fills a wide gap on its own.
