Periwinkle

Vinca minor, commonly called periwinkle or Vinca, is among the most popular and primarily used groundcovers. Periwinkle is a species of the Apocynaceae (oleander) family native to Southern and Central Europe.

Two main species^[1] are cultivated: Vinca minor and Vinca major.

It features smooth evergreen leaves (up to 1.5 inches long), roots in nodes as they move through the ground, and spreads rapidly to form an eye-catching ground cover.

The evergreen leaves are elliptic, simple, and opposite. Phlox-like, tubular, red-violet, pink, or lavender-blue flowers (up to 1 inch wide) appear in spring in the leaf axils and bloom intermittently from summer through fall.

The other common names include creeping Myrtle and dwarf periwinkle.

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