I have three varieties of phlox in my container garden. The common pink has grown again for the past three years and the Blue Paradise have grown for the last couple of years. David (phlox paniculata) is a "Perennial of the Year" award winner for being so "easy" to grow and it really doesn't Powdery Mildew on me, ever, as the claims say, also. Lucky for me I bought one at Burpee, because they have a one year guarantee!

The first yesr, it simply didn't ever grow, but that was two years ago when this area had an extremely rainy spring, and few gardeners got any tomatoes either. (We did, with no problems.) Even Burpee chalked the phenomenon up to that spring. Last year, it grew in-between my two Blue Paradise, but it died in mid August. I was hoping it just died back early and would return this year. Nope, so got my third one this year. This one has bloomed, and, because of the way it looked after the petals fell off (sorta like a green pine cone) something told me not to deadhead it. (I did cut the other flowerhead for a bouquet, but it was growing taller since then.) Sure enough a week or two later, more blooms popped out of the "pine cone." It bloomed again, as beautiful and strong as the first bloom, then it died!

I thought it might have died last year because of the August heat and humidity. This one lived through all that heat and humidity we've had the last couple of months, and flourished. It died once we got into this reasonable weather, kinda "cool" for summer.

I have checked up on how to care for it, and sure enough, that's how I cared for it - moderate to well watered depending on heatwave, new potting soil with good drainage, and this year I planted it in a much smaller pot then the last two years - only 20" X 20" X 20"! There were a couple of foxgloves in with it, but their season was over a few weeks before David's season started.

What am I doing wrong?