Thursday, May 26, 2011

Blueberry Kisses

Back in January, when we spent some time dreaming over seed catalogs, one of the new blooms that caught our eye was Vinca 'First Kiss Blueberry'. Park Seed offered this deep purple-blue version of one of our favorite annuals, and we decided it was worth a try.


Our results haven't been too bad, and the color itself matches the advertised picture pretty well, although the bloom fades a bit after a few days. We started 10 seeds around the middle of February, and 5 of them sprouted well (it took nearly 30 days) and grew into healthy plants. They started to bloom about two weeks ago, and we're hoping the plants will become bushier and covered with more blooms, as vincas usually do once they get well established.


We're keeping them in a planter on the porch for now while they get stronger and more vigorous, though we may eventually plant them outside. Vincas are wonderfully hardy once they get going - once their root systems get established, they weather heat and drought without blinking an eye. They also tend to re-seed pretty readily, so we're hoping to gather some seed from these vincas and grow more of this wonderful color to spread around My Florida Backyard in the future.

4 comments:

  1. That is a wonderful color of Vinca. You are right about them being hardy. DH calls them weeds, but I'm letting them take over my main garden since they do so dang well with our heat and at this time drought conditions.

    Happy Gardening ~ FlowerLady

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  2. Love no-maintenance vincas. The color of yours is so vibrant! Good choice!

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  3. It's a great color. Mine reseed outside of the rose bed (too much water inside) in less than 2" of gravel over weed cloth every year. My volunteers are a paler purple than yours. I love them, but this is the only spot they'll grow in. They like it dry! Love the pinwheel shape of yours.

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  4. I love vincas. They are so maintenance free. Love the new color. Maybe next year I will get a pack.

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