Vic, Mike, think we've been really lucky temperature-wise during July, but the real bonus is all the rain we've had. Have not had to water all month.
Sunny, like Mike, I'm an ardent advocate for that variegated garden phlox cultivar (Nora Leigh). Over the years, I've planted several different variegated phlox cultivars, but currently have only 'Goldmine Improved' and 'Nora Leigh', including a number of the latter in our own garden. As Mike says, it's late blooming. The bloom itself isn't much, but the cultivar, is very powdery mildew resistant. Once blooming is done, it still looks nice (here) well into October, which is long after I've had to cut down all of our other phlox cultivars.
Couple of pictures: I think 'Nora Leigh' makes any flowerbed look good and it's not upstaged by the showier flowers of other herbaceous perennials. See below: part of one of the large herbaceous perennial gardens I've installed and maintained (hobby business) over the years (Mr P's garden on Aug 20, 2011).
This 'Nora Leigh' has been cut back, but amazingly (for a garden phlox cultivar) it's still around, looking presentable in our garden, on a Nov 1, (2021).
