Vinca Minor

Vinca Minor

(OLD-FASHIONED PERIWINKLE, MYRTLE)

Vinca Minor, also known by the common names Myrtle and Periwinkle, is an excellent evergreen ground cover for partial-sun and shaded areas. This old fashioned classic has been in America since colonial times when it was brought over from Europe. Dark green oval-shaped foliage and eye catching flowers in early Spring to summer. Flower color depends on the variety, as noted below. Vinca has a creeping habit and grows along the ground, forming a thick mat of green once established.

Plant 6 to 8 inches apart. Combines with Pachysandra if each kind is kept in large colonies, not mixed together. Grows 4″ to 6″ off the ground at maturity. Vinca Minor, like Pachysandra, likes fairly good soil.

Vinca Minor really has many advantages as a ground-cover. Deer resistant, hardy, and easy spreading, it eliminates weeding by smothering out weeds in its thick growth. Anywhere that the stems touch the ground will naturally root, allowing for a fast speading ground cover. Great for areas in shade that other plants have difficulty growing in, including under pine trees.

Vinca Minor plants have sturdy fibrous root systems and so are also an excellent choice for slopes as an effective means of erosion control.

All Vinca varieties listed below are nursery propagated 1-year heavily rooted cuttings with excellent foliage and roots!

We pride ourselves in selling the highest quality unique cultivars of Vinca Minor that will truly stand out in any garden-bed

Vincas do well in a good, loose, fertile soil with an acidic pH under 6.0. MiracleGro and MirAcid are well-accepted by vinca plants. If you intend to mulch these ground-covers, we suggest you use medium or fine shredded mulch but not more than one inch deep.

A massive bed (approximately 25′ wide x 75′ long) of Vinca Minor Bowles in a partially shaded area. Evergreen the year round, with an abundance of purple flowers in the Spring. Fertilization will produce even more flowers in the Spring and Summer.

Massive bed of Vinca Minor

VINCA MINOR VARIETIES OFFERED

Vinca varieties are well-rooted cuttings, with excellent foliage and roots, packed in bundles of 50 or 100 with moist peat moss around the roots.

Bowles’ Cunningham Blue

The improved strain of common Vinca Minor with rich, glossy green foliage and larger blue-purple flowers that flower Spring to Summer!

Atropurpurea

Deep red-wine colored blossoms, prostrate in form and drought tolerant once established, an excellent ground-cover.

Alba

Alba – A rare, beautiful white flowered evergreen plant with smaller leaves! Increasingly in demand.

Ralph Shugert

Deep Dark green foliage, Blue flowers, and a Distinctive White Edge. A rugged grower and the “Class” of the new varieties.

Miss Jekyll’s White

A small-leafed and very dwarf growing plant, Deep green foliage with a blanket of white blossoms in the Spring. A true historical dwarf plant!

Illumination

This excellent cultivar distinguishes itself by having bright variegated golden-green foliage with dark green edges, a very unusual and showy plant. Periwinkle blue flowers in spring.