My yard is invaded with it. . . grass, flowerbeds, everything. It seems to prefer sunny areas. I did some research, and found out, at least, that it doesn't spread via seed arund here. It just puts out creepers, which keeps the invasiveness to the area surrounding where it was planted.

Why not try natives? There are many wonderful natives to choose from. Check out what the New England Wildflower Society suggests. . .

Here is a link that might be useful: New England Wildflower Society

It is on the invasive list here in NC. I do have it in an island surrounded by paved areas, so it cannot "escape" from there. However, there was periwinkle in the woods when I moved here, and in spite of some spraying, it persists. Knowing what I now know, I would never recommend planting it.

I'm in Michigan, and have old periwinkle in many areas. I would not recommend periwinkle for anywhere you don't want it to overrun. There is a much better suggestion for you below.

We are in similar growing zones. I wouldn't worry too much about periwinkle badly invading lawns. It doesn't like regular mowing, and the offended runners can be pulled back.

But there is *no* way to keep it contained in a woodland or a small garden area. The three foot border of rocks would only provide it a graceful place to drape over in its abundance. And the runners would be spreading underneath the rocks. In a woodland garden, it would demolish anything smallish, and would do a fair job of taking over the entire ground.

It does have its place, and I like it there. But 'there' are the areas between concrete and driveway, where I don't want to plant anything else. It's lovely there.

If you are looking for a 'ground cover' for a woodland area or other shade area, I would recommend woodruff. Yes, it spreads by runners, and is dense, but it roots shallowly, and is easy to pull back and limit. Additionally, it is a bit shorter, and less 'massy', and many of the smaller woodland plants can coexist. It doesn't tend to 'smother' things. Periwinkle is *much much* more difficult to deal with.

Check out woodruff. We have had this in woodland gardens, herb gardens, etc. It is a lovely, manageable shade ground cover.

The closest you could come to containing it would be to have edging that goes down deep but even then it will grow over the edging. I wouldn't plant periwinkle. It will cause more problems than it solves.

Periwinkle, though pretty, is a huge problem in our area. I probably would look for a less aggressive alternative. It would be hard to keep the periwinkle from eventually covering your adjacent woodland.

That tends to be the problem with ground covers, we want something that will fill in an area quickly, but usually those are the very type of plants that are hard to control when they escape cultivation.

Okay for some reason my fumbling fingers hit the submit button, when I meant to add more text... ooops.

I wanted to suggest a couple alternatives like wild ginger, (asarum canadense),foam flower (tiarella cordifolia) or virginia creeper (parthenocissus quinquefolia)...

A woodland with periwinkle will soon turn into a woodland with only periwinkle and no other small plants. It might look pretty at first, but you'd be losing a lot of what makes a woodland an interesting place to be. In addition to the native plants you'd be crowing out, you'd also be losing all of the native animals that go with the plants - insects, birds, etc. that would be attracted by native understory but will be in short supply in a periwinkle monoculture. It is very difficult to contain and also tough to get rid of if you decide it can't be contained.

I had a stampeding horde of Vinca minor growing throughout the yard when I moved here - in the woodland area, as well as the garden beds and borders. It probably covered about 1/4 acre of a 1.25 acre lot. It was planted by the previous owner some 40 years ago and has spread impressively.

I agree with the previous posters that it has a place in a contained location where it may be difficult to grow other things - such as under a maple. But it chokes out anything else you try to grow, such as in a woodland.

I have removed quite a bit of it so far. Relatively speaking, it's not that difficult to remove. I've used various methods - digging it out, mowing it repeatedly, and smothering it with lasagne beds. The lasagne beds are my favorite way - lay down a couple layers of cardboard, followed by layers of organic matter. Let it sit for 6 months or so, and the Vinca is gone!

I've spent the last 16 years trying to restore my woodland and I'm still pulling up periwinkle - are you going to try one of the other plants suggested?

I've wanted to put in Virginia creeper (Parthenocisus...) but I'm afraid to, given the raging English ivy & Lamium on our island. Seems risky - anybody know how thugish creeper is?

Virginia creeper isn't as aggressive as english ivy. I've been trying to get it to grow on my back fence and it just languishes on the ground...

If you want a "woodland" garden you want neither periwinkle nor sweet woodruff. I am still trying to get rid of my woodruff and periwinkle and Japanese Pachysandra that has invaded from the neighbor's. There are so many native plants that would be so much better including allegheny Sourge.

I had to laugh reading about the Invasion of the Periwinkle in your posts. It reminded me of the rampaging periwinkle growing in the front garden with the azaleas when I first moved in here. I've worked diligently to remove it, but it STILL shows up, peeking out from under nearby boxwoods most recently. I finally figured I could put it to work in a huge bare shady spot in my back yard and planted a couple of sprigs - needless to say, they are already spreading like the Pod People of the plant kingdom. Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. My question is, I have ivy as well back there, starting to spread - I thought they might look nice together, but will one kill the other off? And would it be a blessing?

Well, I need to take back part of what I said above. The part about periwinkle not being extremely aggressive in my yard. ;) I finally tried to pull it out today. After removing the leaf litter, I saw that it had taken over a bigger portion of the yard than I realized - in areas beyond the reach of the mower. I spent about 3 hours digging, and having not gotten a tenth of the way through, I decided to spray the rest. I think it actually spread from the neighbors' yard, who have a large bed of nothing but periwinkle. The upside is that in the areas I dug, there is nothing but bare earth, since nothing else can survive under its dense evergreen shade.

So I'm not the only fool with periwinkle that has gotten out of control. I am going to try the cardboard with the organic topping and hope that kills the rest of it.
Allegheny Spurge would be a good alternative or the Virginia Creeper. Eastern teaberry sounds like a good one too.

LOL... I WAS going to plant some this weekend. Thanks for the heads up!

LOL Emmi, here is what I mean by a "stampeding horde", as much as plants can stampede, that is! If Vinca minor is left to its own devices for a few decades this is what happens -

{{gwi:1352472}}

Kbcherokee, the cardboard technique works well, it just requires a little patience. When I want an instant bed I have to dig the stuff out, and it's kind of a pain to dig out.

Vinca can be controlled pretty easily by mowing the edges every time you mow the grass though. I plan on leaving a patch of it under a large Silver maple, which has these huge gnarly surface roots that not much will grow around.

Well, this thread seems to mostly answer a question I was about to ask. Is Periwinkle really that bad?

I planned to use Periwinkle as a ground cover for some "bald spots" and I've already done a few small Periwinkles plantings as a test and it was successful. Currently, its growing nicely along with and under other plants (Pachysandra, ferns, etc.) Do I understand that it's been some of your experience to find that the Periwinkle will eventually choke out the other plants and try to take over the area for itself?

(How can one recommend against Periwinkle while suggesting Virginia Creeper? Periwinkle certainly couldn't be as invasive as Virginia Creeper: second only to Kudzu - but without Kudzu's benefits.)

Virginia Creeper would not be considered ecologically invasive where it is native, and I have never heard of any economic impacts related to this species. In natural woodland periwinkle may prevent the establishment of native understory herbs. This is sometimes seen in second growth forest where periwinkle has spread from the site of an old homestead.

Kudzu was widely planted in the 1930Âs after the US Soil Conservation Service encouraged its use to control soil erosion. It has since infested about 11,000 square miles of the southeastern United States and the economic impact is estimated to be $500 million every year in lost cropland and control costs.

Most of the problems associated with "invasive" species have less to do with what takes place in someone's yard than what occurs when a plant gets out of someone's yard. Periwinkle tends not to spread very far though because it spreads mostly vegetatively, so it isn't a species of concern. The introduction of Kudzu on the other hand has been seen as an ecological disaster.