Myrtle, Creeping Myrtle, Periwinkle, or Vinca

(Apocynaceae - Dogbane Family)

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• Form
  • short evergreen perennial groundcover
  • maturing at about 6" tall and up to 3' in diameter for each individual plant
  • trailing mat, prostrate mat, or mounding mat growth habit
  • medium growth rate

• Culture
  • partial sun to full shade
  • performs best in rich, evenly moist, well-drained soils in partial shade, but is adaptable to soils of average fertility, soils of various pH, and occasional drought (once established), but is not tolerant of full sun (which quickly leads to decreased vigor and chlorotic foliage)
  • propagated primarily by rooted stem cuttings but also by crown division
  • Dogbane Family, with Vinca Stem Blight (Phomopsis livella) as a noticeable disease that occurs under constantly moist to wet conditions; it is a fungus that, although usually not life-threatening or causing large patches of the groundcover to die out, girdles a stem at its base and causes the stem and its foliage to turn black and brown as they die
  • abundantly available in flats (as rooted plugs, in cell packs or peat pots), or in container form
  • plant the plugs of groundcover about 1' apart, mulch at transplanting, and keep the planting evenly watered for the first season of establishment, to promote rooting-in of the plug and adventitious rooting at the nodes of the trailing stems

• Foliage
  • opposite along the thin stems, but clustered at stem terminals
  • evergreen, elliptic, and entire, being lustrous dark green above with a subtle white mid-vein
  • cultivars exist that have creamy-white, silvery-white, gold, or yellow variegation of the foliage

• Flowers
  • blue-purple is the predominate color, but cultivars also exist that are reddish-lavender or white
  • solitary flowers originate from the leaf axils, composed of five fused pinwheel-like petals and a short tubular throat, blooming in late March and April and sporadically throughout the growing season, often sparsely arranged along the stems but sometimes densely flowering in Spring

• Fruits
  • brown, minute, and ornamentally inconspicuous

• Twigs
  • light green and very slender, with green Winter buds that are very small

• Trunk
  • not applicable

• ID Summary
  • dark evergreen, elliptical, shiny, opposite leaves on thin, light green, trailing stems that root at the nodes are the main feature of this groundcover for shady spots, with sparse blue-purple flowers in Spring
  • Myrtle is sometimes confused with Purple Wintercreeper (Euonymus fortunei 'Colorata'), but the latter has serrated margins on opposite leaves that bronze heavily in Winter, with larger and more dense foliage on thicker stems, and the stems usually do not root at the nodes, but rather climb supportive structures for short distances, or may mound upon themselves as a groundcover up to 2' in height

• Function
  • evergreen groundcover in shady locations at foundations, beds, raised planters, or under woody plants

• Texture
  • fine texture
  • thick density

• Assets
  • evergreen groundcover
  • has sparse but attractive Spring blossoms (rare for an evergreen groundcover)

• Liabilities
  • can become invasive beyond its intended boundaries (even into lawn areas) by its trailing and shallowly-rooting stems
  • Vinca Stem Blight will cause death of individual stems, with the resulting persistent brown foliage scattered amongst the living groundcover
  • retains some blown leaves and debris in Autumn and Winter
  • declines and becomes chlorotic when improperly placed in full sun

• Habitat
  • zones 3 to 8
  • native to Europe and Western Asia

• Alternates
  • evergreen "viney" groundcovers (Euonymus fortunei 'Colorata', Hedera helix, Liriope spicata, Pachysandra terminalis, etc.) or evergreen woody groundcovers (Juniperus conferta, Juniperus horizontalis, Juniperus procumbens, Microbiota decussata, etc.)

• Variants
  • Vinca minor 'Alba' - white-flowering form
  • Vinca minor 'Atropurpurea' - reddish lavendar to red-violet flowers
  • Vinca minor 'Bowles' - has larger foliage that tends to mound instead of creep or trail, and flowers that are slightly larger and more dense with an intense blue or purple color; the standard and most common form available
  • Vinca minor 'Ralph Shugert' - leaf margins are sharply defined by a creamy-white variegation, with blue-purple blossoms

• Translation
  • Vinca is the classical Latin name for this plant, derived from vincio, which translates as "to bind", referring to the stems.
  • minor translates as "small", denoting that this is the smaller-foliaged of the two common groundcover species.

• Purpose
  • Myrtle is an evergreen Spring-flowering groundcover that performs very well in moist, shady spots.

• Summary
  • Vinca minor is a good evergreen groundcover in partial shade with small Spring blue-purple flowers.