How to Prune Creeping Phlox

Overview

Creeping phlox looks elegant crawling over rocks and tumbling over walls in gardens. With a soft blanket of needle-shaped green and a vibrant show of small pink, white, red, or purple flowers in early spring, creeping phlox makes an easy and strikingly beautiful ground cover that just continues to spread as far as there's dirt to allow it. Sometimes pruning is needed to tame this perennial plant, however.

Step 1

Lift the green layer of your phlox plant. Creeping phlox grows in layers with the newest growth on the top. Underneath you will see that there is a layer of brown, dying old foliage.

Step 2

Trim the brown layer back dramatically with the garden shears or a pair of regular scissors if garden shears are not available. There may be a middle layer, depending on the age of your plants, of older but still green foliage.

Step 3

Feather in the middle layer by trimming it back but not cut as far back as the browned section. As this layer falls into place, it will hide the old, unsightly decayed section.

Step 4

Trim the new growth on top, allowing it to cover the middle section. Carefully cut each flower to shape the plant in a natural versus cutting off in a straight line.