Vinca - For and Against

Scotg. I love Vinca because they make ground cover and that has to be good to stop the war against weeds!! I think that purple 'La Grave' is a beauty.

I found it too invasive in the garden. Where it is outside the front wall, we found the main electric cable only 9" down. To stop ourselves doing it or us any harm we built up a raised bed using the off cuts of slabs we had used to top off the wall. I then stuck black plastic flower pots along the filled in bed to enable my OH to put concrete over the soil. I then planted small berberis hedging in each hole (where the bins had been). At first because they were so small I planted begonia sempervirens to give a bit of colour but later I found that difficult. The berberis is very prickly. I had to get rid of the vincas and it has been an ideal place to keep them.

In my last house I had a wide 8' bank - a consumption dyke, actually - as the back boundary of the property. After trying everything to keep weeds, especially ground elder, under control, I eventually allowed two of the usual 'thugs' , Lysimachia and Vinca Major to take over and between them they successfully smothered everything else and even looked pretty, too. So, in the right place ......

Exactly, in the right place it is unbeatable. What is a consumption dyke, sounds ominous. I have found another pic showing the hedge in October last year.

It is where all the big stones from the fields around are built up into one great long pile about 6' high and 8’ wide and usually set along a significant boundary line. Some have paths on them, but that is less usual. So, the next time you see a really wide dyke ........

We live and learn, thanks for that gem. The last house in the village has a huge dyke as a boundary to their garden which is probably just that.

Good ideas for growing it Scotsgran...:>)

Thank you Motintot. Its great what we can come up with between us.

Sounds lovely that bank covered in Lysimachia I love that might try planting some on our dyke side we are edged at the front by a big dyke which very seldom these days has water in it. Thanks for the ideas.

Ah, Scotsgran, you really don't want to get me started on this subject. Make no mistake, I think this is a really pretty flower, with some gorgeous, vibrant shades of blue and mauve, and I was pleased as Punch to find it in the garden when we bought the house, but I was innocent then. We have, either side of the steps leading up from the courtyard, two sloping rockery beds, some of the rocks being bits of the actual mountainside which poke up through the soil, and some of which have been placed there. The vinca, obviously bought in the UK (Mrs vendor is English) and still bearing the garden centre labels, looked lovely, but then began to take over, despite the cutting back each season. Now pretty much the whole garden is under threat of invasion because the roots have gone deep and are growing under and into the crevices of the bedrock, where they can't be winkled out. My beautiful shrubs and roses and perennials are being choked out of existence, and nothing I can do, short of using a flamethrower, will get rid of it. I have had to remove as many of my precious plants as I can, clear the bed and dose the vinca heavily with weedkiller. Three applications so far, and still the b****r is popping up all over the place. The garden looks like a warzone and I have now found it in the lawn. I think it should be banned from the planet or at the very least come with a government health warning that it can seriously affect your blood pressure. I want to enjoy my garden, not FIGHT it, so Vinca is banned! (Well, it will be when I have managed to get rid of it.)

b****r too,I was about to put on a blog asking about this plant,i do love it and admired it in peoples gardens before i had mine,its growing lovely up the ugly fence but had spread where I dont want it,and is makeing its way to my lawn,how do I keep it back and from takeing over the garden as I do still want to keep it just not everywhere,and how do you tell vinca major and minor,thanks chris

sorry ive got it,mines vinca major,ty

Horrible stuff, absolutely loathe it, Yes, pretty flowers, what you get of them, and what a short flowering period too, but, unless you're the type of gardener who pays attention to detail and can be sure to get out and give the thing the Chelsea chop as soon as flowering's over, and again later in the season, it's a nightmare. Worst ground cover plant I can think of - not even very good at smothering the ground and preventing weed growth. Throws out long runners which then root, leaving largeish areas of bare soil in between, just right for weeds to colonise and be difficult to get out.
I'm probably biased - I do know its supposed to be ground cover, but I never recommend it or plant anywhere, its lousy groundcover, other plants are much better at that job. And I once had to deal with a bank 20 feet long and 6 feet deep from front to back with shrubs - and vinca, together with hypericum calycinum, run amok throughout the whole thing. Frankly, I'd take my eyeballs out with a fork before I ever planted that anywhere for anyone.

I agree..... it is great for keeping the weeds down if you have a large garden. Maybe a problem if you don't have the space.

My rockeries are about 35' by 15' deep - plenty of space and still overrun!

But that's the point, Linda235, it ISN'T great at keeping weeds down. Give me Campanula muralis or Ajuga reptans any day of the week to do that job in shady conditions, now that's what I call ground cover.

Mine flower all summer, now till September or October. I have chosen where I grow it with great care. I do chop it back and it does what I need it to do. I found it was spreading too much where I first planted it and quickly took it out of the garden. I had had a similar experience with Cerastium Tomentosum, it is the grey foliage that you can see in the last photo. It has white flowers and is commonly named snow in summer. I reckoned the name is because it covered everything it came in contact with. It too does me proud outside the garden. I agree both plants should come with a health warning as I would never recommend planting either of them in a garden.

I have tried without success to propagate and increase my little patch of cerastium. What am I doing wrong?

http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/your-garden/plant-finder/plant-details/kc/h590/cerastium-tomentosum.aspx goes in to quite a lot of detail about the growth of Cerastium tomentosum. Apparently there are over 100 types of cerastium some of them annuals so maybe that is part of the problem.

I forgot to say, Scotsgran, that they way you grow it, cutting it back and containing it, is undoubtedly the route to getting the best out of this plant.

I shudder to think of having it in my garden except as it is. Today I went to the Scottish Rock Garden Club show in Edinburgh where Moongrower and Bulboholic walked away with several prizes and even a bit of silverware to take home. I could have kicked myself for leaving the camera behind. My friend and i were talking about the plants in the gardens we passed to get to the show and she spotted a bit of vinca minor. She asked was there any way of getting rid of it as it is such a thug in her garden. I passed on all the suggestions. As we left to come home we spotted a very new Vinca which has obviously just gone in. She had to restrain me from knocking on the door and telling the owner to get shot of it before the neighbours complain. I bought lots of lovely goodies including a few packets of seeds.

I have added a further two photos so you can see how restricted is the space for the vinca.

Strange you found these invasive. I haven't found that. Maybe they don't like my soil. I love the colours of their flowers.

They do have lovely flowers Hywel. I'm surprised they are so well behaved in your garden as they seem to be a real thug all over the country. Maybe you are just a better gardener and keep them trimmed back.