Here's my creeping phlox, with and without blooms. It used to get fully covered, luxuriously, with blooms when I lived in St. Louis. Summer here in the Boston area is cooler, and where this is situated it gets some sun but it's not all day sun. It's growing fine here, but slowly, and I know it's not as happy as it was in St. Louis since it never gets fully covered with blooms.
In St. Louis it liked the full sun and it liked 90 degree days. Here, without so much of that, this is what it does. It took a few years for my one pot to grow to fill this small space. I enjoy the foliage once the blooms are gone.
This is
creeping phlox. There is also a leggy tall phlox that people buy. The foliage on the tall phlox does not grow dense here, so I wouldn't want it. But people do buy it, probably for the flowers. YMMV.
My creeping phlox is the totally green carpet of fluff on the right. I bought a pink blooming cultivar but it died. You may get better advice from people in your climate for how it does there.
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