Continuing our tradition of designating one of our priority genera as a theme for the year, we have chosen Phlox for 2014. This genus has been the subject of intensive research and development at the OPGC for the past 4 years and our germplasm collection has expanded from an initial set of 2 accessions 5 years ago, to over 400 accessions of both wild-collected material and cultivars in our current, and expanding collection. Our emphasis has been to develop and characterize the collection as well as exploring the interspecific compatibilities between different species that may open new opportunities for cultivar development by professional breeders.