Hi~'Nicky' has been around; its reliably hardy and very resistant to powdery mildew, but that depends so much on growing conditions. You need to leave room around the plants so that air can circulate. I find that means they not only grow larger, but they also spread by seed, so give it some room to ramble. Similar in habit to bee balm. I kept the one seedling that looked like my original 'Laura', but that was a happy accident.

Here's something interesting about the color. 'Nicky' is close to 'Laura' in color, without the white eye, right? My 'Laura' has a reddish magenta color that almost vibrates. I have read that 'Nicky' changes color. ' Blue Paradise' is said to have this same quality, changing from reddish purple to magenta, with a red eye, I believe. Phlox is one of my favorite plants, so I definitely want to try these.

I was going to a local garden center today (not HD or Lowe's)to see if they had any garden phlox available but a storm/rain came up and decided since those type plants are always on the upper level, I wasn't going to take a chance to be caught up there with no shelter. Will go another day.
That Blue Paradise is calling my name. Would love to have some red ones too. Do you think the garden centers would still have Bee Balm this time of the year too?

My BLue paradise gets mildew while Laura and Nicky do not. Great color, but not as healthy leaves.

Good to know. Thanks for the input. I have a daughter named Laura, named after my Grandmother and I had a crush on a boy in high school named Nicky.That was way over 50 yrs. ago..maybe the Nicky phlox will be as cute as he was! Silly debate, isn't it? LOL!

Original German name for the plant is Dusterlohe. The flowers burn to white in the sun. Apart from that it is not completely selfsupporting and fall over in rain+wind. The same applies to French cultivar Iris(identical). The only one in this colour which is selfsupporting is Border Gem. It also burns in the sun, but not that badly as the two others. Blue Paradise is a flopper, as well as Blaue Morgen(a little bluer in the evenings). None of the purple phloxes resemble Laura even by a long shot.

I was attracted by the title "tall phlox" is there any other kind? No matter how much I cut mine back they are always too tall. Al

Yes, phlox subulata creeps on the ground. There are also other types, 'half-high' . Try to type phlox in Google. It will come with many suggestions.