Out phloxed...Ending the year on a sad note...




Phlox 'Mary Maslin'

Let's make next year better! I have known for some time I would have to eventually write this post, and I suppose the last day of the year is appropriate. 30 years ago the Mexican phlox that my friend Paul Maslin (and I) brought into cultivation were reaching their apogee. There were a dozen or more clones making the rounds...some propagated in prodigious numbers for a while. Everyone had them. And eventually just about everyone lost them. Above is 'Mary Maslin', which Paul named for his wonderful wife who passed away in her mid nineties a decade or more ago. Paul died in 1984--he would be sad indeed to know that most of his phloxes would one day be nearly extinct. Or possibly extinct.


Phlox lutea 30 years ago at Denver Botanic Gardens
 



The yellow one still persists in the wild, at least. And on the fringes of cultivation...Above you can see how well it once grew for us. I thought it would be a keeper!

Phlox 'Tangelo' 30 years ago at DBG

I know a few people who still have 'Tangelo'--maybe we can bring it back from the brink...

Phlox 'Vanilla' last year in my garden

'Vanilla' which ages a pale yellow is quite vigorous still--the one that has lasted the longest..

Phlox 'Arroyito' 25 years ago or so: grown by Homer Hill (R.I.P.)

Home Hill loved this miniature that showed up at his place. It bloomed all summer. I have a real sense of loss when I view these...I remember Homer once had flats and flats of this.

There is the man: my buddy. Paul Maslin. Look five or so feet in front of him and to the left--you can see some of the scarlet and orange phloxes that filled that patch of prairie five or ten miles west of Cuahtemoc: notice the outlines of the hills behind...and compare them to the shot below.

We believe this picture was taken from roughly the very same spot as the one before. It's worth looking back and forth between them a few times. That is the story of the modern era: the wholesale pavement of all that is charming and picturesque under asphalt and cement.The curlicue and fastigiate cypresses (or are they junipers?) are small compensation indeed.

We have relinquished too much as we've overpopulated our planet. We must re-engineer our economic system--a pyramid scheme at best. We must somehow come to grips before we destroy and lose and compromise the things on planet earth that really matter: the magnificent fields of wildflowers.

We only found the bright orange, scarlet and crimson phloxes in one spot--and that spot is paved wall to wall to perdition.

New Year Resolutions:

        1) Join Zero Population Growth
        2) Send a check to Planned Parenthood
        3) Re-join the Sierra Club
        4) Propagate rare plants I grow that may be lost to cultivation
        5) Try to raise my own integrity a tad so I can be self-righteous without squirming too much

I would like to be positive and cheerful: those who know me know I tend to be. But I believe we cannot be naive, or dishonest or spend all our time whistling in the wind. Nature shall persist long after humans have bungled and blasted ourselves to oblivion. But I would like both Nature and Humanity to not just persist, but thrive. And for humanity to quit overpopulating, and even shrink our numbers a bit, and figure out how we can have our cake and eat it, dammit!

How have a Happy New Year! (Drink one for me and maybe a couple for the lovely Maslin phloxes--who knows? perhaps there's even time to salvage a few?)

P.S. I've done an album on this blog showing a variety of phloxes--these as well as lots of Western phloxes that are still wonderfully abundant in nature. (Just don't tell the engineers).