Phlox Perfectly Puzzling

Phlox ‘Perfectly Puzzling’ is so named because it is puzzling that it produces flowers in three different colors: white, light raspberry-violet, or medium-dark raspberry-violet. The different flower colors are randomly produced on any given plant, and it is attractive in all color forms. ‘Perfectly Puzzling’ is a well-behaved and durable moss phlox selection that blooms for four weeks. At peak bloom, the blooms cover the plants completely. The petite 0.6-inch-wide flowers are star-shaped with narrow petals and cleft petal tips. Like many moss phlox, ‘Perfectly Puzzling’ forms a low-spreading mound that strongly layers in as it spreads. The plants eventually grew together to form a continuous ground cover. The diminutive, starry flowers are attractive in any of the three colors that may appear. The unpredictable pattern of the flower colors adds to its charm.

Enjoy its early spring bloom, and well-behaved, needle-like summer foliage. Expect a full month of floral display. Use this multi-hued selection in full sun toward the front of the perennial border, in the rock garden, on slopes, over stone walls, between pavers, and in similar sites. Mass it as a ground cover for a striking spring floral display.

Open-pollinated seed was collected in 2009 from the diminutive, white-flowered selection Phlox ‘Ellie B.’, which is thought to be a hybrid between Phlox subulata and Phlox bifida. The pollen parent was likely a Phlox subulata selection, as many cultivars of moss phlox were growing nearby. ‘Perfectly Puzzling’ was selected as it bloomed in April of 2012. Careful study of individual flowers led us to observe that no one flower transitions through all three colors. Two rounds of vegetative propagation proved this selection is actually a chimera of sorts, as the three flower colors can appear in random patterns on the propagules. The medium raspberry color may dominate over time.

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