Vinca minor Marie

Vinca minor 'Marie' is a beautiful improvement on the periwinkle with small flowers. More floriferous and denser, it blooms in spring, and often again in autumn, with so many blue flowers that they touch each other above a beautiful dark green, evergreen and glossy foliage. Its vigorous and particularly fast growth sneaks between the roots of trees, in poor soils and even in full sun. It can be used as groundcover, in pots or even in hanging baskets.

The periwinkle with small flowers is a creeping perennial with woody stems from the Apocynaceae family, native to central and southern Europe.  'Marie' stands out for the duration and abundance of its beautiful star-shaped flowers, a very bright violet-blue. This plant develops from a woody base, producing creeping or erect stems, forming a dense carpet 20 cm (8in) high and 50 cm (20in) or more in width. In contact with the ground, the stems produce vigorous roots that allow this plant to continue its lateral growth. The stems bear opposite, ovate, dark green, glossy leaves and produce solitary terminal flowers from February-March to May, and often in September-October, composed of five square, asymmetrical petals.

Periwinkle is a useful, sometimes invasive, groundcover. They will even spread in shaded areas, although they may be slightly less floriferous. They eventually form thick intertwined mats, effectively covering the ground under trees or shrubs, not fearing their roots, in rockeries or along pathways. They will easily naturalise, in the company of Acanthus mollis, Geranium nodosum, Geranium Czakor, Dichondra repens or Ivy-leaved toadflax (Cymbalaria muralis), in a slightly wild understory. The 'Gloire de Marengo' ivy, with its fabulous grey-green leaves variegated with cream, will make a beautiful combination with Vinca minor 'Marie', in regions where winter is not too harsh.