Phlox paniculata Bambini Desire

Phlox paniculata 'Bambini Desire', just like its brother 'Bambini Candy Crush', is part of a new series of varieties of paniculate phlox with exceptionally compact growth and early and perpetual flowering, producing large displays of beautifully coloured flowers. This lovely selection produces generous panicles of bright pink-purple flowers, which are slightly fragrant. The plant is very bushy, covered with beautiful dark green foliage, which is resistant to diseases. It is a perennial particularly suited for ornamental gardens and flower pots. In the garden, place this phlox in borders or at the front of sunny flower beds.

The recently obtained Phlox paniculata 'Bambini Desire' from the Netherlands belongs, like all Phlox, to the family of Polemoniaceae. It is a perennial with a woody base forming a small dense tuft of leafy stems that will not exceed 30 cm (12in) in all directions. The stems, stiff and sturdy, are covered with dark but vibrant green leaves, measuring 10 cm (4in) in length. Flowering begins in early July, before that of other varieties, and continues until September, provided that faded flowers are removed. The small flowers have a tubular corolla, deep pink in colour, opening into several lobes arranged in a helix. Each petal is slightly highlighted with white, and the flower's throat is almost black. They are clustered at the end of the stems in dense and globular panicles, slightly fragrant, whose weight barely bends the very short stems. The flowering is melliferous and nectariferous.

Phlox paniculata are perennial plants accustomed to ornamental gardens, as their legendary simplicity and generosity are almost unmatched in perennial beds, when planted in the sun and in damp soil. In borders or at the front of flower beds, phlox 'Bambini Desire' can be combined with the variety 'Bambini Candy Crush', dwarf asters, small deep pink daylilies, intense blue perennial flax, or the white flowers of groundcover roses Swany or Marie Pavie, with which it forms a very cheerful ensemble. Phlox paniculata 'Bambini Desire' is a first-rate perennial to enhance flower pots that will adorn balconies and patios.