 many school sites, including McKinley Elementary and John Muir/SMASH.
Concerns raised by this survey provide another reminder about how parents and community members should obey all traffic laws and drive responsibly around schools.
Creating safe walking and biking routes is part of our DNA in Santa Monica – especially when it comes to schools and our beloved parks and social spaces. Our continued efforts can reduce injuries to people in crashes by calming speeds, creating comfortable and protected places to walk and bike, and encouraging people to be part of the movement for a more active and connected community. Are you ready to help create safer ways for your friends and family to get around Santa Monica? Be part of GoSaMo to show your support for Santa Monica mobility, and get involved in your school’s Bike it! Walk it! Bus it! Skate it! events.Phlox paniculata are often regarded as a quintessential English garden plant, with their soft, open heads of lightly scented flowers. However, P. paniculata is a native of North America. It was introduced to England by the Quaker botanist John Bartram (1699-1777) of Philadelphia. Phlox is the Greek for flame.
Phlox are a genus of the Polemoniacaea family, native to the eastern and central United States and eastern Canada. Phlox are a large genus of 67 species of mostly perennials with a few annuals and shrubs. The species classed as ‘border Phlox’ include P. paniculata and P. maculata, which are from riverside habitats and produce large corymbs of flowers (a flower cluster whose lower stalks are proportionally longer so that the flowers form a flat or slightly convex head, and in which the outer flowers open first) in midsummer, with oval or lance-shaped leaves. For more information on the different kinds of inflorescence click here for the RHS School Gardening Spotter Guide.
The first serious phlox breeder was Wilhelm Pfitzer who introduced P. paniculata ‘Europa’ in 1910. Early hybridisation of P. paniculata took place mostly in France; Victor Lemoine was a well-known French plantsman who introduced a number of cultivars. Two are still listed in the RHS plant finder: P. paniculata ‘Iris’ (1890) and P. paniculata ‘Eclaireur’ (1892).
George Arends was basically a hybridiser and experimented with crossing P. paniculata with other species. In 1912 he began producing his first Phlox x arendsii, crossing the early flowering P. paniculata with the low-growing woodland P. divaricata, the result being a more compact plant which retained the impressive flowering of P. paniculata. Among his first were P. x arendsii ‘Helene’, named for his wife. Although most of these early hybrids have since been superseded, the name x arendsii is still conferred to plants of the same parent species. The original hybrid bred in the 1920s is available today as P. x arendsii ‘Anya,’ which has magenta pink flowers. His great granddaughter, Anja Maubach still runs the nursery he established in the 1930’s.
Phlox became popular in the UK in the 1880’s, when they were bred as a cut flower. They became popular for garden use in late Victorian and Edwardian gardens and were a great favourite of Gertrude Jekyll. By 1917 there were 584 named selections. H J Jones was a pioneering Phlox breeder in the UK in the early 1900’s. He bred a number of cultivars which are still available today, including P. paniculata ‘A.E. Amos’ (1924) with deep raspberry-red eyed bright red flowers which fade in sun and P. paniculata ‘Mrs A.E. Jeans’ (1922) which has pink flowers with a darker eye.
New Dutch selections include P. x arendsii ‘Luc’s Lilac’ and the Spring Pearl Series (‘Miss Jill’, ‘Miss Karen’, ‘Miss Margie’ and ‘Miss Mary’), named for the office staff at the De Vroomen company, and with white, dark pink, lilac-blue, and rosy-red flowers, respectively.
Between the 1930’s and the 1960’s, Karl Foester, a prominent German plant breeder, introduced a number of cultivars which are still available today. In 1934 he introduced the salmon-pink P. paniculata ‘Eva Foerster’ AGM. In the 1940’s he introduced the lavender P. paniculata ‘Amethyst’ (1940) and P. paniculata ‘Schneerausch’ (1949) which has big thick creamy white flowers from shadowy slate lilac buds. In the 1950’s he introduced the pale pink P. paniculata ‘Rosa Pastell’ AGM (1951), P. paniculata ‘Prospero’ AGM (1956) with fragrant, white-eyed, light lilac-purple flowers with pale-edged petals, and P. paniculata ‘Violetta Gloriosa’ (1956) with pale lilac flowers and a large white centre. One of his last introductions in 1964 was the purple P. paniculata ‘Dusterlohe’ (synonym ‘Nicky’).
Karl Foerster developed the concept of ‘wilderness garden art’ in his garden in Potsdam-Bornim which is a short train ride from Berlin. Click here to read more about his garden.
Bonne Ruys founded the Moerheim Nursery in the east of the Netherlands in 1888, specialising in perennials. The business became the most notable nursery in Europe for perennials in the first half of the twentieth century. In 1937, he bred P. paniculata ‘Frau Alfred von Mauthner’ (synonym P. paniculata ‘Spitfire’) which has brilliant cherry-red flowers, and leaves that have a dark red tinge to them. Other cultivars available today include P. paniculata ‘Wilhelm Kesselring’ (1923) with blue-lilac flowers with pale cream blazing, and a hint of red-magenta in the eye, and P. paniculata ‘Caroline van den Berg’ (1927) with lavender flowers with a deeper eye. (P. paniculata ‘Caroline van den Berg’ was an HPS conservation plant in 2008.) Ruys also introduced two white cultivars, P. paniculata ‘Rembrant’ (1900) and P. paniculata ‘Mia Ruys’ (1922). P. paniculata ‘Milly van Hoboken’ (1922) has delicate pink flowers.
His daughter, Wilhelmina Jacoba Moussault-Ruys was a Dutch landscape and garden architect. Her gardening legacy is maintained in the Dutch town of Dedemsvaart, home of the Tuinen Mien Ruys, which contains 30 inspirational gardens. Along with Piet Oudolf, she is considered to be a leader in the ‘New Perennial Movement.’ Click here for a link to the gardens.
There has been a long tradition of breeding Phlox cultivars in Russia. P. paniculata ‘Uspekh’ AGM (synonym ‘Laura’) was bred by P. Gaganov in 1937.
The high point of phlox breeding in this country occurred after WW II when a local grower from Otley, Fred Simpson and Capt. Bertram Symons-Jeune of Windsor began serious efforts to produce modern varieties for British gardens and many of their cultivars are still available today.
In 1913, Fred Simpson, started a poultry business developing quality strains of hens on what is now the site of Steven Smith’s Garden Centre in Otley. Twenty-one years later as his health failed, he turned his attention to horticulture and he developed an interest in breeding better strains of perennial plants. These included the world-famous Otley Korean Chrysanthemums and the Lupin ‘Otley Yellow’, but it was his work with herbaceous Phlox paniculata which was most successful. He introduced the regal strain which included cultivars named after royal residences, including P. paniculata ‘Windsor’ which has bright salmon pink flowers with cerise-pink eyes, and P. paniculata ‘Sandringham’ which has cyclamen pink flowers with dark eyes. Courtyard Planters in Otley propagate several of Fred Simpson’s cultivars on behalf of ‘Otley in Bloom’. P. paniculata ‘Otley Choice’ and P. paniculata ‘Otley Purple’ are still listed in the RHS Plant Finder.
Captain Bertram Hanmer Bunbury (B.H.B.) Symons-Jeune, was a notable rock gardener, designer, and breeder of phlox, selected mostly for flower size and colour, and for vigour. Between 1940 and 1960 he supplied ten varieties per year to James Baker’s Boningale Nursery near Wolverhampton, which is now a wholesale nursery. They include P. paniculata ’Eventide’ (1947) has mauve-purple, scented flowers. Other cultivars include P. paniculata ‘Vintage Wine’ (1957), a dark leaved variety with royal purple-red flowers; P. paniculata ‘Othello’ (1959) which has large heads of claret-red flowers with a light fragrance; its shoots and leaves are dark green flushed with