VENI, VIDI, VINCA

It's summer, and the grass is limp yellow, and the bare spot underneath that tree looks as obvious as a badly made wig on a bald man. You'd love to disguise it with something -- and what more natural than a groundcover? There are many good choices available to you, but one of the most popular and widely used is the periwinkle -- Vinca major and Vinca minor.

This is one of those plants that's absurdly easy to grow, even for an amateur with a streak of bad luck. You can pretty much plant it in a shady spot and neglect it, for it grows well (a bit TOO well sometimes). Although these plants are native to Madagascar and India, they've become thoroughly naturalized in many parts of the U.S. and Europe.

This beautiful groundcover thrives in partial sun or shade in all zones of the continental United States. In most zones it's a perennial with glossy dark green foliage and many delicate blooms. It's a good plant to choose if you want to emphasize other plantings since it grows only 4 to 6 inches high and will spread out into a nice leafy green bed. Unlike many other vines, Vinca will neither twine nor climb. It does drape nicely in hanging baskets, however

Beecause Vinca loves the shade, it's often planted in areas where the sun seldom reaches. It's fairly drought tolerant, though it does have its limits. Here in Texas, it has done fairly well through most of the summer, though in the past week or so (after 30 days of temperatures over 100 and less than 1/10th of an inch of rain), I'm seeing more patches of Vinca that are dead or dying. The ones that are doing well are in a sort of survivalist symbiosis with a tree. The mat of Vinca vines protect the tree's roots and help hold in moisture and the tree's leaf shade shields the Vinca from the deadly effects of the sun.

The Vinca beds are also host to tiny native Texas lizards that like to hide deep in the thick tangle of old stems. Small and very agile, they help keep down the ant population. This makes them very welcome residents in our yard, although we work hard to convince the cat that they're not supposed to be cat toys.

Yes, Vinca is the periwinkle referred to in the color name "periwinkle"; the color of the vine's flowers in springtime. It has a variety of names,

Go To Page: 1 2