Flower Friday: Phlox Flowers

“Phlox flowers were considered one of the most widely used blossoms from the late 1880s all the way to the 1940s. Although these may have been their early glory days, they are still a well loved plant in many perennial gardens all over North America and Europe. Although their popularity truly began in the 1800s, they received their first piece of recognition in 1732, when the German botanist Johann Jacob Dillenius was commissioned to write a description of Dr. James Sherard’s famed Eltham garden, which harbored a number of phlox paniculata. The phlox drummondii – which can now be seen growing mostly wild in southeastern regions of the United States – has an interesting history of its own. During the early 1830s, Thomas Drummond – a curator of the Belfast Botanic Garden – began an independent exploration of America, searching for new flowers to take home to Britain. Weathering foul winter conditions, near starvation, animal attacks and illness, Thomas Drummond sent home – amongst other plants – phlox flowers, where the species was aptly named after him.” (source)