Hi GJ,

I could be wrong, but I don't think that first one is gonna stay a "bush" for very long! It sure looks like variegated Vinca major to me! Normally sold as a vining annual, but will usually overwinter outside around here!

Can't see the foliage well enough on #2, but the flower sure looks like it could be a Scabiosa!

Can't tell for sure without seeing it in person, but #3 looks like Sedum acre to me! If it gets yellow flowers it probably is!

#4 looks a little too pink in the pic, but I'm pretty sure it's Sedum reflexum 'Blue Spruce'. If the new growth is all "blue spruce" color and it gets yellow flowers, it is! If so, cut it all the way down when it's done blooming!

Your yard looks great! Bet it's really something when more things start to bloom!

Skybird

Thanks skybird for the info and compliment. I'll add the info to my plant chart of the front yard. It's not really a very showy garden though it'll get more showy as the season progresses and plants mature. It's a mixture of herbs, vegetables and flowers so it'll have more of a subtle display. Trying to get more of an edible front yard without looking like a traditional vegetable garden. Lots of onions, some peppers, beets, spinach, sage, garlic, rosemary, winter savory, tarragon, thyme, carrots, dill, nasturtiums, gojiberries, mustards, kale, strawberries plus more I can't remember without looking at the chart.

Love it!

Your garden looks beautiful. I saw that first photo and it is indeed variegated vinca. I must warn you that stuff is "insidious". I had it in a mixed flower bowl someone gave me as a gift the first year I moved into my home in 2000. Some of it spilled over and planted itself into my front garden bed and I've been fighting it ever since. It propagates via runners and chokes out everything in its path. It could be great if you have a large space with nothing else in it, but if you have a garden bed with other plants, it will take over. As pretty as it may seem, I'd advise you to get rid of it now while it's small.

Thanks for the tip. I was working yesterday and saw vinca running amok at a customers house and I was thinking the same thing. I have a place that it might work better which is sort of a hell strip which is an area between driveways.

Greg, if you have any hanging baskets or big pots with annuals, Vinca major, the "annual" Vinca, makes a great "trailer."

If you're thinking of planting it (major) in your hell strip, here are a couple FAQs about both V. major and V. minor.

V. minor is reliably hardy to zone 4 and is truly evergreen.

V. major is less hardy, probably about zone 6, and is only semi-evergreen.

Both prefer part to mostly shade but V. major can usually take "more" sun than minor--still not recommended for FULL sun.

If V. major were grown in full sun (your hell strip???) chances are that the dormant semi-evergreen leaves would look bad to dead by the middle/end of winter--it's that high altitude sun of ours!

V. minor leaves are smaller but spaced more closely together on the vine.

V. major leaves are larger but spaced further apart on the vine, so would not "fill in" as completely.

V. minor grows pretty much on the surface and, in my experience, can be fairly easily removed if it goes where you don't want it.

V. major! Since it's most commonly grown in pots/baskets I didn't know about this so I did a quick search and it looks to me like major roots more deeply, is more aggressive, and is more difficult to get rid of if you ever want to.

The stuff--V. major--really can be pretty in hanging things, but if you want an in-ground groundcover for your hell strip, and if it is in sun, I think, in the long run, you'd be a lot happier with a or a combination of succulents in there!

It looks like you already have at least a couple types of sedum you could start there, and if I'm able to make it to the Fall Swap (planning another trip around that time) I'll be bringing starts for other sedums again--along with different hen & chicks and two or three of the iceplants I have. Any/all of those would give you a great, low, truly evergreen groundcover for your hell strip, and the iceplants have stunning flowers!

Ok! So I'm prejudiced against Vinca! It's just that in whatever conditions, sun OR shade, there are so many other options that are nicer/prettier/denser and that don't have the imminent thread of invasiveness hanging over your head. Yes, I sold Vinca to people when they asked for it, but I never recommended it when somebody came in looking for groundcover recommendations!

If your hell strip is part to mostly shady, give it a go! If you don't like it in a couple years you could always hit Delete (a/k/a Roundup), and try something else! (But if the V. major is growing in that nice front yard garden of yours I do think it would be a good idea to get it out of there before it gets going for real! Stick it in a hanging basket and watch it blowing in the wind!)

Skybird

P.S. I have a V. major 'Aureo', the green with YELLOW variegation that I LOVE--and I keep it in a pot on the deck rail--with a geranium (Pelargonium!) or something in the middle of the pot!

P.P.S. If you never got one of my rooting sedums sheets at one of the swaps and would like to know how to make some "new" nice little plants for starts of the sedums you have, let me know and I'll email it to you.

I too have a wonderful hell-strip -- hot, sunny, no supplemental water (except for new plants), but it drains the neighborhood so the clay-ey soil beneath the surface is often wet after the people uphill water their lawn. And in winter it can be covered with foot-deep drifts of snow for a while.

Sedums are doing great there, and so are my ice plants. All are from swaps, and I'd be happy to bring some starts to any swap to supplement what skybird brings.

Salvia is doing well there -- I have May Night, Salvia azurea (blue sage), and I'm trying platinum sage this year. Penstemons and agastache are two other plants that often appreciate the hot sun and relatively dry conditions.

I have skybird's zauschneria there. It is a creeping plant with happy orange flowers for the latter part of the summer. It was scary-invasive for her. Me? I don't care yet if it tries to be invasive. It can't go too far before it runs into concrete.

The ajugas I have there are doing well. Ditto for the red valerian (Jupiter's Beard). I'm trying to get lavender established with middling success.

Callirhoe (purple poppy mallow) is another plant that likes it hot and dry. It forms a low spreading mound of greenery that blooms for most of the summer. I have it in a different hot and sunny part of my front yard, not in the hell strip, but it would probably do very well there.

I have other plants in other parts of my yard that might do well in those conditions. Try some of the ornamental oreganos, maybe? Or the Plant Select tanacetums that have silver leaves? Yarrow might work well, too. There are lots of great choices.

But right now, I'm trying to find something a little taller and more structural (i.e. a nice unifying sort of shrub) that will survive the conditions, because my strip looks a bit unplanned right now. The combination of hot sun and intermittently wet feet is a challenge -- I'm trying Apache plume and a dwarf rabbitbrush this year.

Ideally, I'll have some nice shrubs there, and then spreading patches of different plants, a mix of flowers and interesting leaves.

Umm, well, that thoroughly derailed this thread. Except for the part where I agree that vinca is probably not the right plant for a hell-strip. I had trouble with vinca at my old place (well above 8000'), so it might well have elevation limits, too.

And I agree with the sedum Blue Spruce id. Mine also looked reddish before the weather warmed and it started to grow.

hmm, I posted a fairly lengthy replay last night to this thread. Seems to be a no-show.

I think I will pot up the vinca major.

Hens and chicks might be a good start for me on the hellstrip. I have plenty that I can transplant. The iceplants sound interesting.

Will need to reread the last 2 replies when I have some time.

In my experience (which is limited), the hens and chicks don't like the full sun all that much. My healthiest and happiest ones get some shade, and are in places that tend to be a little wetter and shadier during the winter.

The sedums, though, like the heat and sun just fine. Oh, and catmint (aka nepeta) also likes the hell-strip conditions, at least this year.