Plant Care Basics
Contents
Grow Zone Recommendation: Periwinkle is a great choice for flower gardening in USDA zones 4 to 9.
Sunlight Needs: Plant your periwinkle flowers in part sun, shade, or full sun. Your needs may vary by variety, so keep your tag or seed packet for reference. Part sun is usually best, but periwinkle is pretty adaptable.
Watering Needs: Periwinkle is drought tolerant, and can even be grown in rock gardens. However, moisture will help them flourish and very dry conditions can slow them down.
Average Size: Periwinkle may grow from 6 inches to 3 feet in height. As far as width goes, they will spread indefinitely in mild climates like California. In more northern climates with cold winters, they won’t spread as much.
Foliage Color: The long-blooming flowers of periwinkle come in blue, purple, and white with blue-green foliage.
Must Know Plant Care Tips: In climates with mild winters, periwinkle can become invasive. However, unwanted plants pull out easily, making them fairly easy to maintain. If left to its own devices, however, it will spread indefinitely. Cutting the plants back will encourage brighter, more colorful growth. Humus-rich soil is best.
Plant Problem Solver: If you have a shady spot where grass dies out and most perennials won’t grow, consider periwinkle. It’s pretty tough and can make a great ground cover. It is also resistant to deer and makes good slope and erosion control. It attracts birds and works well in containers, where it will obviously not be able to send shoots into unwanted areas. Its rigorous growth can help keep weeds out of areas where you don’t mind a ground cover, but don’t want to be pulling ugly weeds.
Pretty Pairings: Try planting periwinkle next to hakone grass, lungwort, and lilyturf.
Pages: Page 1 Page 2
Leave a Reply