The Fragrance of Phlox

One morning this week I walked through the garden quite early. It was before 7:00 A.M. and the sun was just coming up. I caught a scent on the slight shifting of summer air and was transported back to childhood. I remember gazing eye level with the purple phlox and drinking in their fragrance. These were my grandmother's garden phlox and just the plain old purple. There are so many cultivars available these days but I find them to be, usually, unreliable in their seasonal return to the borders. The Phlox x 'Miss Linguard', a white, is always present but the oranges and multi-colored phlox which I have put in over the years often decline after the first year or two. What I have found is an abundance of seedlings and the seedlings are more fragrant and that very purple of my childhood. There is something to be said for longevity. In people and in phlox.