Garden phlox 'Bright Eyes'
Phlox paniculata 'Bright Eyes' · Polemoniaceae
Soft pink flowers, each with a crimson eye, in dense, scented heads on a plant of medium height.
- Size
- 2½ ft tall, 24 in wide
- Zones
- 4 to 8
- Light
- Full sun to part sun
- Flowers
- Mid July to late August
- Pets
- No toxicity recorded
- Job in a bed
- Drift
A bed built around garden phlox 'Bright Eyes'
The planner designed this bed around garden phlox 'Bright Eyes' when this page was made: a 12 × 6 ft (3.7 × 1.8 m) English border in zone 6, full sun. It chose the other plants from the 966 that suit those conditions, and says below why garden phlox 'Bright Eyes' stands where it does.
The plants
- 1 Garden phlox 'Bright Eyes' × 3, pink
- 2 Blue moor grass × 7, purple
- 3 Mouse-ear coreopsis 'Nana' × 27, yellow
- 4 Swamp milkweed 'Ice Ballet' × 3, white
- 5 Globe arborvitae 'Danica' × 1, green leaves
- 6 Coneflower 'PowWow Wild Berry' × 3, pink
- 7 Hyacinth 'Delft Blue' × 5, blue
Why this plant
- The only dense clusters. The others are spires, daisies and flat plates. Shape reads at a distance, where colours blur.
Why here
- Anchors a back corner. At 2½ ft it is one of the taller plants here, and the tallest close the ends of the bed, where they stand in front of nothing.
- A step in the back row. Next to coneflower 'PowWow Wild Berry' (22 in): no two neighbours there are the same height, so the back steps up and down like a skyline.
- 3 plants in one group. Massed, one kind reads as a single shape. Scattered, it would look spotty.
Why now
- In flower for 8 weeks. From mid July to late August.
- Part of the bed's peak. With swamp milkweed 'Ice Ballet' and coneflower 'PowWow Wild Berry' in mid July: 3 kinds at once. No week has more.
Planned as an English border: 4 of the 6 groups (67%) are drifts, longer along the bed than they are deep. The bed is balanced: the left half carries 49% of the visual weight and the right half 51%. The scheme leans cool (pink, purple and blue) and uses yellow for warmth, with white to calm things between them.
The planner's own design check: 9 Excellent, 8 Good. It flags one thing to watch: Nothing on this plan is highly poisonous or an aggressive spreader.
Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.
Where garden phlox 'Bright Eyes' goes in a border
At 2½ ft it belongs in the middle of a bed. In the planner's ten height classes it is medium tall (2½ to 3 ft).
Its job: drift. Planted in a small group of three or five, and repeated further along in the other number.
A classic bicolour that stands without staking. Thin the stems to five or six a clump in spring, for better air and bigger heads.
- Summer colour in the middle of a border
- Scent
- Butterflies and hummingbirds
What to plant with garden phlox 'Bright Eyes'
Plants recorded as good partners for it, and what each pairing does:
- Shasta daisy 'Becky': in flower together for eight weeks, from mid July.
- Balloon flower: in flower together for six weeks, from mid July.
- Lady's mantle: flowers first, late May to early July, so the spot is never empty; low enough (18 in) to stand in front of it; happy in the same moist soil.
Questions about garden phlox 'Bright Eyes'
Does garden phlox 'Bright Eyes' need sun or shade?
Garden phlox 'Bright Eyes' grows in full sun (6 or more hours of direct sun a day) and part sun (4 to 6 hours of sun, including some afternoon sun).
It wants soil that stays evenly moist, rich in organic matter, and a good soak in dry spells.
What zones does garden phlox 'Bright Eyes' grow in?
USDA zones 4 to 8. It is hardy to zone 4, which means it survives winter nights down to about −20 °F (−29 °C).
Above zone 8 it struggles: the zones measure winter cold, but a plant's top zone usually means the summers are too hot or the winters too mild for it to rest.
Gardening in Canada? Use the USDA zone for your town: Canada's own zone map uses different numbers.
When does garden phlox 'Bright Eyes' flower in my zone?
In zone 5 it flowers mid July to late August. As a summer flower it moves about half a week for every zone: earlier where it is warmer.
| Zone 4 | Mid July to early September |
|---|---|
| Zone 5 | Mid July to late August |
| Zone 6 | Mid July to late August |
| Zone 7 | Early July to late August |
| Zone 8 | Early July to late August |
Worked out from Hopkins' bioclimatic law: spring arrives about four days later for each degree of latitude north, and one zone is roughly two degrees. A warm spring or a cold one moves any garden two weeks either way.
How far apart should garden phlox 'Bright Eyes' be planted?
20 in (50 cm) apart, from the middle of one plant to the middle of the next. That is a little closer than its full width of 24 in (60 cm), so a group knits into one patch.
It grows 2½ ft (80 cm) tall. Give it the full distance from anything taller, or it will lean out towards the light.
How many garden phlox 'Bright Eyes' plants do I need?
At 20 in apart, set out in staggered rows:
- 4 to fill 10 square feet (about 1 m²)
- 7 for a single row 10 ft (3 m) long
- 14 to fill a 4 × 8 ft bed on its own
In a mixed border, plant it as a group of three or five, with a second group further along in the other number.
In the bed above, the planner used three in one group.
Is garden phlox 'Bright Eyes' poisonous to dogs and cats?
No toxicity is recorded for dogs, cats, horses or people, according to NC State Extension.
"Not toxic" is not "edible": a pet that eats a lot of any plant can be sick.
Do deer eat garden phlox 'Bright Eyes'?
They may. NC State does not list it as resistant to deer or rabbits. Where they visit, protect it, or plant it among ones they avoid.
What flowers after garden phlox 'Bright Eyes'?
Garden phlox 'Bright Eyes' is over by late August. These start as it finishes and carry the same spot on, so it never goes flat:
- Garden chrysanthemum: from mid September to late October, 24 in tall, to stand in front of it and cover its fading stems.
- White wood aster: from late August to early October, 24 in tall, to stand in front of it and cover its fading stems.
- Bottle gentian: from late August to early October, 20 in tall, to stand in front of it and cover its fading stems.
What does garden phlox 'Bright Eyes' look like in winter?
Garden phlox 'Bright Eyes' dies down to the ground and there is nothing to see until spring. The old stems can be cut in autumn, or left until spring as shelter for overwintering insects.
Is garden phlox 'Bright Eyes' good for bees and butterflies?
Garden phlox 'Bright Eyes' is visited by pollinators, bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.
It is native to the United States (this is a named variety of the native plant).
More Phlox
- Creeping phlox Phlox subulata
- Creeping phlox 'Candy Stripe' Phlox subulata 'Candy Stripe'
- Creeping phlox 'Emerald Blue' Phlox subulata 'Emerald Blue'
- Creeping phlox 'Sherwood Purple' Phlox stolonifera 'Sherwood Purple'
- Creeping woodland phlox Phlox stolonifera
- Garden phlox Phlox paniculata
- Garden phlox 'David' Phlox paniculata 'David'
- Garden phlox 'Jeana' Phlox paniculata 'Jeana'
- Garden phlox 'Laura' Phlox paniculata 'Laura'
- Woodland phlox Phlox divaricata
- Woodland phlox 'Blue Moon' Phlox divaricata 'Blue Moon'
In these guides
- Plants that grow near black walnut
- Pet-safe plants for a sunny border
- Native perennials for pollinators
- Plants for hummingbirds
- Plants for butterflies
- Plants for bees
Every fact on record
- Type
- Perennial
- Size
- 2½ ft (80 cm) tall, 24 in (60 cm) wide
- Plant
- 20 in (50 cm) apart
- Height class
- Medium tall (2½ to 3 ft)
- Place in the bed
- Middle
- Flowers
- Mid July to late August; dense clusters; pink
- Leaves
- Medium texture, herbaceous; green
- Shape
- Upright, clumping
- Hardy in
- USDA zones 4 to 8
- Light
- Full sun, part sun
- Soil
- Rich, evenly moist
- Water
- Moderate
- Feeding
- Moderate, in spring
- Family
- Polemoniaceae
- Comes from
- Eastern United States
- Attracts
- Pollinators, bees, butterflies, hummingbirds
- Stands up to
- Black walnut
Checked against NC State Extension and VASCAN (plants of Canada). Flowering times are for zone 5: later in colder zones, earlier in warmer ones. Toxicity and spread information is a general gardening guide, not veterinary or medical advice, and invasive status varies by region. If a person or pet eats a plant, contact poison control or a vet. Check your local invasive species list before planting anything with a spread warning.