Flower for the Day Periwinkle 4-9-26

> > Every garden has an infrastructure including paths and borders (or no borders). I try to keep mine > somewhat tidy using rocks (large and small) and growing steppables. My favorite ground cover is > periwinkle (Vinca minor) which surrounds multiple sides of my gardens and house. It has many advantages. > It grows in drought resistant areas. It stays green all year. It blooms twice a year. It doesn’t climb trees. > It is soft to the touch. It comes in several flower colors. From a gardener’s perspective its dense habit smothers most weeds. If it overgrows it can be readily transplanted. >  > > It is in the dogbane family. Periwinkle spreads along the ground and rooting along the stems forming large clonal colonies. The leaves are evergreen opposite, broad, and glossy dark green with a leathery texture and an entire margin. > The flowers are solitary in the leaf axils, violet-purple and and magenta in color and have a five-lobed corolla. >  > > Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock > > The houses are haunted > By white night gowns. > None are green, > Or purple with green rings, > Or green with yellow rings, > Or yellow with blue rings. > None of them are strange, > With socks of lace > and beaded ceintures. > People are not going > To dream of baboons and periwinkles. > Only, here and there, an old sailor, > Drunk and asleep in his boots, > Catches tigers > In red weather. > > Wallace Stevens > > > > > > > > >