I'm in Metro Detroit, and so far, the squirrels have eaten all the Sweet Woodruff I planted for three years. They seemed to leave it alone last year, but I'm honestly not sure if the stuff grew ANY over the summer.

I found lots of Periwinkle (I assume you mean vinca minor?) taking over the garden here. It created a solid mat of greenery around the existing hostas and attached itself to all rocks and shrubbery in its path. Since the garden had only been neglected a couple years, I don't know what could happen long term. It's too vigorous for me to want in most of my hosta beds.

For tall hostas, I actually like Canadian Wild Ginger as an underplanting. For small hostas, I have some Buglewood and Dwarf Crested Iris that survive just fine.

two MI peeps i have never seen before.. may as well make it 3 in a row ....

my experience with vinca is that usually gets to be pretty aggressive ... over the decades.. and may eventually choke out other things ... and not easy to train ...

i dont know about SW.. but its a woodland plant.. and probably pretty easy going .... and easily managed ...

if you are seeing too much ground .. perhaps you need some bigger hosta???? or need to adapt your spacing .... if you were to provide some pix.. in a new post.. we might be able to offer some suggestions ....

ken

I once planted 3 little plants of vinca, and years later woke up that they were trying to take over my backyard. I almost have them all removed. Actually while using weedkiller I also killed 2 azaleas. Now I noticed a dense colony of escapees in neighbor's yard and they try to come back to conquer, so war this spring!
All running groundcovers, once established will try conquering your garden. Creeping Jenny is another threat.
Bernd

Sweet Woodruff needs shade and will fill out fairly quickly - find someone with it in their garden and get a 4" pot or two. In a couple of years you will have plenty.

I quartered a 4" pot in 06. Below is pic in 08 and last year +++++ I have 3 other areas similar or smaller from that single 4" pot.

Vinca, I agree with Ken that it can mat a bit. Also, I've heard to keep it away from the lawn.

Paul