Vinca minor 'Atropurpurea'

Atropurpurea periwinkle

This is my favorite Vinca cultivar of them all.

It's nearly the same as the regular vinca that we all know and love, but the flowers are a beautiful bright plum-purple and seem to float above the dark green foliage, adding brighter hues to the typically pastel spring landscape.

Like most Vinca vines it will produce fewer blooms in deep shade, so if you can give it partial shade it will be happiest. Mine fills an area under deciduous hollies and a large paper birch; hosta, ferns, and wildflowers come and go through the foliage like floral jack-in-the-boxes with the seasons.

Although it will fill a space faster if grown in organic, moist, well-drained soil, it will grow quite well in heavy clay as long as it gets adequate moisture.

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(c) 2007 Christopher P. Lindsey