How to Grow Vinca Minor

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Yolanda Vanveen. And in this segment we're going to talk about how to grow Vinca Minor or Lesser Periwinkle. It's a beautiful climbing type vine ground cover that you can grow in your garden. Vinca Minor is native to all of Europe. So it's very hardy, it can go from zones 4 to 9. So it can handle quite cold winters, up to pretty warm climates as well. And it has slender woody stems and it's an evergreen creeper. So it will cover a ground over distance of 10 feet. And it will lay down a mat of glossy dark-green leaves and which are pointed in shape. And in the spring through the summer they have little gorgeous purple small flowers and they bloom just gorgeous, they're just a beautiful plant. But there are some hazards with this plant. Now Vinca Minor is one of those plants that when you buy a house in a new development that they always put in the front beds. And they look gorgeous for a few years and then all of a sudden they just take over. They'll climb up the walls of the house and they'll take over the trees, and they almost grow like a Ivy. So I'm always warning people to be very careful when you grow Vinca Minor. It's a beautiful plant but it can take over and so always cut it back periodically or don't put it up next to the house because you don't want it growing into the wood of your house. It'll actually eat it away. So it's a beautiful plant. Put it in full hot sun, give it something to grab onto. It'll make a creeper so it'll either grow up the wall or along the ground. And it's a beautiful plant but use with caution."