New Plants: Phlox ‘Pomegranate Beauty’
Phlox ‘Pomegranate Beauty’
Phlox ‘Pomegranate Beauty’
I have previously written about an annual, bedding phlox so already this blog is getting very unbalanced when it comes to plant content. No marigolds, salvias, tulips or daffodils so far. I will redress the balance in time but this plant gets a mention because I had some trial seeds to try and it is available for sale for 2014 so I need to give my verdict on how well it did and what I thought of it. I have already said that I like annual phlox and this variety was low, compact and free-flowering like all the rest. It is said to grow to 35cm but my plants were a bit lower. But to explain why that might have been I need to start at the beginning.
A late start
The seeds were sown a bit later than I would have liked, at the end of April, and they didn’t have ‘5 star’ treatment because the weather was getting very warm in June and they didn’t get the feeding and attention the earlier plants got because I was running around like a mad thing planting veg, bedding and lots more. But they certainly were not ill treated – I try not to do that to any plants.
Because everything else had had allotted spaces I was not sure where these were going to go so they were not planted out till July when I pulled up the Iceland poppies and yellow chard in the rainbow border. They were planted around and in front of the ‘Oranges and Lemons’ roses and beside an alonsoa.
They quickly flowered and branched out into low, spreading plants with rather pale green foliage. To be honest I didn’t think they had the vigour of ‘Moody Blues’ but is this ‘lacking vigour’ or ‘compact’ – I cant really condemn it for being smaller in stature because it certainly wasn’t ‘weedy’ or ‘needy’.
As for the flowers, they were bright. Really bright. This could be a tricky colour to fit into a subtle scheme but it certainly hits your right between the eyes. I did wonder about the name at first, wondering why it was called ‘Pomegranate Beauty’ because I cant think of any part of a pomegranate fruit that is this vermillion/scarlet shade. And then it hit me – again. It is the colour of pomegranate flowers rather than the fruits.
Special mention
I have to say that if you think the plants in the photos are slightly underwhelming I have to make an admission. I cant believe that I didn’t take a photo of these in summer. I am sure I did and looked and looked but couldn’t find one so I went out with the camera and took these specially for the blog. So these photos were not taken on a glorious day in August – they were taken on December 9! This is after several frosts, gales and rain. This is a tough call. For a bedding plant to look this good three weeks away from Christmas is pretty impressive so if you like the look of it from these photos just think how good it is going to look in your garden next summer.
Good points
Easy to grow, bright, disease-free, quick to flower, more interesting than marigolds. And it flowers for ages.
Bad points
Colour is a bit harsh
Worth growing?
Verdict 9/10
A really bright, cheerful flower for summer colour that is economical and great for borders and containers.
Mr Fothergills £2.05 for 175 seeds
Rose ‘Oranges and Lemons’
Alonsoa
The Biking Gardener 
like the phlox but so love the rose oranges and lemons
‘Oranges and Lemons’ is certainly vibrant. It is not my favourite rose but it always attracts attention, and, in fairness to it, flowers for a long time – the photo was taken on Dec 9 too – and it has lovely, dark purple young foliage too.
what a gorgeous rose i want one
This cluster-flowered (floribunda) rose was introduced in 1993 and grows to about 1m high and is almost thornless. The medium-sized flowers are usually carried in clusters of three to five. It is available from a few nurseries including C&K Jones, who I believe introduced it in the UK. They have bare-root stock available at the time of writing – £8.95 but obviously there is P&P on top of that. http://www.jonestherose.co.uk