How to Grow Wintercreeper

By eHow Home & Garden Editor

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If you are in need of a hardy and vigorous groundcover, consider wintercreeper. Also called Euonymus fortunei, it is an evergreen shrub that trails along the ground like a vine or attaches itself to vertical support with small roots much like an ivy. It is easy to grow and great for controlling erosion on a slope or as a decorative sidewalk edging.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Step1

Choose the variety of wintercreeper that suits your taste. Purple-leaf is a woody vine with dark purple leaves in winter. Emerald 'n gold is a smaller bushier plant with yellow edged leaves. Grow erecta for a non-climbing variety with dark green leaves. For a short densely matted carpet, try kewensis. Bigleaf wintercreeper is the most cold hardy. All have small flowers and pale orange berries.

Step2

Plant 18 inches apart in full sun to deep shade. The warmer the area, the more shade the plant requires. Wintercreeper can grow in any soil, but does not like soggy conditions.

Step3

Provide support such as a trellis, if not using as a groundcover. This broad-leaf evergreen will attach to a brick or stone wall with small rootlets.

Step4

Water regularly as this plant does not tolerate drought conditions.

Step5

Propagate by taking tip cuttings in the summer. Use cuttings from lateral shoots to start ground cover plants and vertical shoots for shrub-like plants.