We’re definitely going to be winding down our Flower Friday’s soon! Fall has definitely taken its grip, the trees nearly barren and it’s looking like we’ll be diving into the 30’s by next week! But, for now, we’ve got one that has really brought joy to our flower gardens. Phlox!
We started growing Phlox sort of on a whim, mostly because we liked the name, but we didn’t really know much about them. The etymology of the flower’s name is rooted in Greek, essentially translating to “flame.” The species is part of the Polemoniaceae family of flowers, with 68 known species among them. You might not be immediately familiar with this family of flowers, but you might have heard it by the more common name of Jacob’s Ladder. Phlox is largely native to the US and North America and is fairly “new” in the cultivation world, seeing its first cultivation in the 1700’s.
Phlox are quite diverse in their growing characteristics, featuring three distinct types of growth that depend on the species. Some species grow more upright, similar to a typical cut flower. Some species are small and bushy, such as the ones we grow. There’s also species of phlox that will grow almost like ground cover. The environments where native Phlox grow include forested areas, prairies and even alpine tundra habitats. Thus, they’re a rather flexible flower that can take to many different types of growing environments.
Not all Phlox species are edible and the ones that are usually are the perennial varieties. Given their somewhat recent discovery, the culinary applications have been somewhat limited. The flowers have certainly be used in fruit salads, featuring a somewhat spicy sweet characteristic. Some early American bakers have also candied the flowers, using them to decorate cakes and other desserts. Of course, the rare bartender has also used them to decorate the occasional cocktail.
Given the relatively recent discovery and largely north American origin, we don’t see medicinal uses going back into Ayurvedic and traditional Chinese medicine times. However, native Americans did use perennial Phlox flowers for medicinal purposes.
One of the more popular medicinal uses were as a laxative and for treating other digestive disorders. It has also been used topically to treat skin problems, even severe ones such as boils. Clearly, there are bioactive characteristics of phlox and there are further uses awaiting their discovery. As far as we can tell, there have been no deeper medical studies evaluating phlox for use in pharmaceuticals. This is somewhat common among more recently discovered flowers, absent millennia of “old world” use to treat certain conditions. But, there’s likely future promise in this realm.
We’ve been growing this species for several years now and we truly enjoy it. It’s called “Twinkles Phlox” and it’s been fantastic for us in containers. We’ve found it to be quite drought tolerant and relatively cold hardy, meaning its quite suitable for our decorative purposes. One of the best characteristics has been its prevalence of putting on flowers all season, easily lasting from mid June to mid September!
We hope you all have an excellent weekend. We’re still focused on finishing out our gardens, with yet more work to do this weekend! We’ll be back with more food focused posts tomorrow!
