Vinca Minor

RJM62

RJM62

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Geek on the Hill
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Vinca minor is a funny little plant. It seems there is little that encourages or discourages it.

It lives it's own life, at its own pace, with little concern about what is going on around it. Neither flood, nor drought, nor bitter cold bother it at all. It thrives in the shady neighborhoods that most plants hate, living happily among rocks, thorns, twigs, and leaves, neither bothering nor bothered by any of them, never complaining, asking nothing; yet over time it gives strength to the earth, binding the soil tightly together like few other plants can do, especially in the dark regions that Vinca minor calls home.

The only thing Vinca minor shuns is bright sunlight. It is much too modest to call attention to itself other than during one brief bloom every year. It does that to remind you that it's still there -- still contentedly living in that dimly-lit neighborhood where most plants believe it to be too gloomy to live -- and to invite you to visit for a while and say hello.

Then its blooms fade, but still it remains happily thriving among the stones, twigs, and shadows, quietly left to its own devices to live its life as it sees fit.

Rich
 
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We have a decent sized patch of that growing in front of our house. Originally it was planted in a band , but as time went by it took over the entire bed, filling in the area around some shrubs. It's nice stuff, it fills in the area well, blooms in the spring, and requires nothing more than some occasional weeding.

I'll get a picture of it the next time I'm home in the daylight.
 
We had vinca minor at my home in NJ, only we called it myrtle.
 
Everskyward said:
We had vinca minor at my home in NJ, only we called it myrtle.
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It's also called the "lesser periwinkle."

One of its extracts (vincamine) and its semi-synthetic analogue (vinpocetine) are currently used to treat various hearing and balance disorders (mainly in herbal medicine here, but fairly commonly in allopathic medicine overseas). They're also being looked at as treatments for Alzheimers and are commonly prescribed by herbalists as memory enhancers and general nootropics.

There's just so much to like about Vinca minor! I think I'll plant some more this year.

Rich
 
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Rich knows stuff, and tells about it engagingly.
 
We used it as a ground cover on the side of our (shady house). Covers a multitude of sins. Pretty little purple flower, too.
 
flyingron said:
We used it as a ground cover on the side of our (shady house). Covers a multitude of sins. Pretty little purple flower, too.
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That's called weed, bro. :sosp:
 
We had some planted on the north side of our previous house. Intended it to be a ground cover on a very steep patch near an exterior stairway. It worked. But it really spread, too much. It definitely has its place, but it doesn't KNOW its place!
 
Does it stay green year round? I'm in Alabama, moderate temps in winter.
 
It barely hangs on in a competition for space with Lily of the Valley. Blood wort beats them both for aggressive growth. At least on a north face in Michigan.
 
mscard88 said:
Does it stay green year round? I'm in Alabama, moderate temps in winter.
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It does in Virginia, so I suspect you're OK in Alabama. It doesn't spread well unless it's in the shade though.
 
flyingron said:
It does in Virginia, so I suspect you're OK in Alabama. It doesn't spread well unless it's in the shade though.
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Might work then as I have lots of shaded areas that need covering! :yesnod:
 
I used a blue rug juniper as ground cover at a previous house. I needed something flat, that would spread, and wouldn't interfere with a ground level window. That single juniper spread about 10' across, and roughly 5' front to back. I kept it pruned in roughly a half-circle. It's going to get about 6"-8" tall at the main trunk.

Here's a picture, the texture isn't for everybody, so check it out at a landscape place before you commit:

http://hannahslandscaping.com/plant-resource/blue-rug-juniper/
 
I have juniper in an area at the front of the house. Looks great! Have to trim the "leading edge" that meets the lawn a few times during the summer but not a biggie.
 
Matthew said:
I used a blue rug juniper as ground cover at a previous house. I needed something flat, that would spread, and wouldn't interfere with a ground level window. That single juniper spread about 10' across, and roughly 5' front to back. I kept it pruned in roughly a half-circle. It's going to get about 6"-8" tall at the main trunk.

Here's a picture, the texture isn't for everybody, so check it out at a landscape place before you commit:

http://hannahslandscaping.com/plant-resource/blue-rug-juniper/
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I tried it a few years ago on a sunny slope that I hate mowing. The plants didn't survive the winter. Granted, it was a particularly brutal winter, but it was still a lot of money down the drain. :(

So I replaced it with chocolate mint. That stuff is crazy invasive, but it suited the mission just fine. By the second year it had filled in the slope. It holds the dirt together well, too, so it's great for preventing erosion. But you have to be careful with it. In the wrong place, it will grow up through your bedroom window and pull you out of bed at night. But like Vinca minor, it's great if you don't give a rat's how far it spreads. The deer and rodents leave it alone, too.

I also have some phlox and some milk thistle on the slope, as well as some assorted wildflowers. They seem to coexist well-enough with the mint. They also have different bloom times, so there's always something in bloom during the warmer months. They make for a natural-looking, completely maintenance-free combination.

The Vinca minor and some wild strawberries, on the other hand, take care of the shady areas alongside the driveway. Both sides are bounded by forests, so again, I don't care about their invasiveness. The trees don't seem to mind in the least.

Rich
 
Juniper likes full sun. We've got it as a groundcover on the slope leading up to the threshold of our runway. Took a few years to get established but now looks pretty good.
 
flyingron said:
Juniper likes full sun. We've got it as a groundcover on the slope leading up to the threshold of our runway. Took a few years to get established but now looks pretty good.
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Juniper is one of the few plants that like it out here. Juniper and pine.
 
Mint will go crazy. I think I've heard of people planting it in a clay pot, then burying the pot. That keeps the roots from spreading, but you probably need to thin it every now and then.

I had a narrow area to fill at the top of a retaining wall, so I put some catmint (supposedly a compact variety) and some coreopsis along it. Things looked good the first year, but eventually the coreopsis gave up. The catmint is great at attracting honeybees, they are fun to watch.

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As far as my experience with blue rug juniper and other winter hardy plants. In the KC area our temps generally stay above zero. We will get below zero periods, but they generally don't last very many days in a row, and typically are the overnight lows. What really gets plants around here is the combination of cold, wind, and dry. We also don't get a lot of snow, so when we do get temps near zero, with a lot of wind, things can really get 'burned' even if they are winter hardy.

Catmint (Walker's Low) and Coreopsis (Moonbeam? I *think* that's the variety I have. I like the wildflower look, and it also attracts honeybees.)
 

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Matthew said:
Mint will go crazy. I think I've heard of people planting it in a clay pot, then burying the pot. That keeps the roots from spreading, but you probably need to thin it every now and then.

I had a narrow area to fill at the top of a retaining wall, so I put some catmint (supposedly a compact variety) and some coreopsis along it. Things looked good the first year, but eventually the coreopsis gave up. The catmint is great at attracting honeybees, they are fun to watch.

--

As far as my experience with blue rug juniper and other winter hardy plants. In the KC area our temps generally stay above zero. We will get below zero periods, but they generally don't last very many days in a row, and typically are the overnight lows. What really gets plants around here is the combination of cold, wind, and dry. We also don't get a lot of snow, so when we do get temps near zero, with a lot of wind, things can really get 'burned' even if they are winter hardy.

Catmint (Walker's Low) and Coreopsis (Moonbeam? I *think* that's the variety I have. I like the wildflower look, and it also attracts honeybees.)
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Catnip is another plant I have mixed in here and there, along with an occasional sage or lavender plant, and a few others that I've tried over the years. All the of the herbs seem to survive the winters quite well and to get along nicely. But the chocolate mint is definitely dominant. It's also a late starter in the spring, though, which works out nicely. The phlox is usually in bloom by the time the mint gets busy.

The past two winters before this one were brutal, with week-long stretches when the temperatures barely crept above 0 F during the day and dipped into the teens below zero at night. This current winter has been mild overall, but we also had a few cold snaps during which we set a few records for cold. About a week ago we broke a cold record for the date when it dipped down to -19.7 F overnight. The high that day was -8.

I'm confident all of my happy, maintenance-free plants will be fine, however. They've already proven themselves winter-worthy.

My next challenge will be finding grass that stops growing at about two inches.

Rich
 
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Winter-worthy is one thing, but in Colorado they also need to be drought-worthy... and grasshopper worthy.
 
I'm looking forward to this year's herb garden. Rosemary, a couple varieties of thyme, basil, and chives. Parsley and cilantro bolt way too easily in our summer temps, so they are grocery store as-needed. And there's always at least one wild-card that we try out.

A couple years ago we had two winters in a row that didn't kill off the rosemary. That thing got huge.

I kerp thinking about strawberries, but I don't know what I'd be getting myself into.
 
Matthew said:
And deer resistant.
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True. This year I noticed the deer eating the candles off the pines. They must have been hungry. But there was a lot of snow cover for much of the winter which is unusual.
 
My folks live in Woodland Park. Whatever they plant becomes deer food, even the stuff that's supposed to be deer resistant.
 
We have a problem here with catnip, our cats pretty much will kill the stuff binging on it.
Margy did plant some inside chicken wire one time and the cats had it very nicely pruned wherever it protruded. It wasn't just our cats either. We found a neighbor's cat's collar hung up on the chicken wire one day.
 
flyingron said:
We have a problem here with catnip, our cats pretty much will kill the stuff binging on it.
Margy did plant some inside chicken wire one time and the cats had it very nicely pruned wherever it protruded. It wasn't just our cats either. We found a neighbor's cat's collar hung up on the chicken wire one day.
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I think catnip is a particular subset of catmint. The type of catmint I have doesn't seem to draw cats. Although if I mash up a leaf and give it to the cat it does seem to have some effect, but not much.
 
I got some more in the mail today from an eBay seller. Very nice, well-established plants.

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It's still a little early to plant them outside, so I put them in those biodegradable paper pots for now.

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Rich
 
Bwuahahahaha.........so true
 
As far as I am concerned, everything is a weed unless it bears something I can eat. This largely gets me out of any weeding duty.
 
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