Plant guide: Vinca minor
Latin name:
Vinca minor
Vinca minor – commonly known as periwinkle – is a pretty and incredibly tough groundcover plant. Its purple star-shaped flowers bloom all the way from April to September, hanging above a dense mat of green foliage, that acts as a brilliant weed suppressant.
It’s a fast-growing plant that can cope with pretty much any conditions and is unbothered by pests or diseases. The only care it will need is regular pruning to keep it in check…
Plant type:
Evergreen shrub
Growing conditions:
Vinca is a hardy plant that can cope with almost any growing conditions. It’s happy in any type of soil (chalk, clay, sand or loam) and can cope with any light conditions from full shade to full sun. It doesn’t enjoy very water-logged soil.
It is an ideal plant for a spot where not much else will happily grow, so is perfect for shady locations with unfertile soil, and does well covering a slope. We also love to use it as “ground cover” in large post: it will cover up the soil and start to trail down the edges…
It also is very robust and doesn’t mind being trodden on, so is great for the edges of paths, or areas of foot traffic.
Because of its general happiness in any place, it is a very fast-growing plant, that can easily take over, so do take care when putting it in a bed next to other plants.
How to plant:
Usually bought as a container plant, vinca is best planted in the Spring. Dig a hole to the depth of the pot and twice as wide. Carefully squeeze the plant from the pot, put it in the hole and back fill. See our guide to planting out container grown plants for more detailed information.
As they are so fast growing, you won’t need to use many plants. Start them out very well spaced apart, they will quickly spread and form a mat.
Grow with:
Vinca is the perfect companion used for underplanting larger shrubs, as it will form an evergreen carpet at ground level, that can work perfectly with taller shrubs on thinner stems (roses, for example) and will do well under trees, where there is usually dry shade.
We also like to pair vinca and evergreen ferns together, such as Polystichum or Asplenium, for a really easy low-maintenance combination that looks good all year-round.
In our own garden, we’ve used vinca as groundcover underneath our raspberries, which is working really well…
Care:
Water for the first season after planting only. It’s a plant that enjoys drier conditions, so once its roots are established, it won’t need any additional watering.
Vinca minor is a quick grower, and can root any time the tip of a stem touches the ground. Keep an eye on it, year-round, to make sure it isn’t encroaching on adjacent plants, and prune the tips off whenever it looks like it is outgrowing its space.
Favourite varieties:
The standard Vinca minor has a purple-coloured flower.
We are particularly fond of the variety Vinca minor f. alba ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ (pictured above) which has a white flower and is smaller growing than the usual vinca, so slightly easier to keep in check…
