OPINION: Vincas – Ying and Yang
Transform a dull bed into a sea of colour with these eye-catching beauties.
Madagascar is the natural home of Catharanthus roseus, the five-petaled wonder of the medicine world. Historically it was used in India to treat wasp stings and was applied topically. It is rumoured that in China, Philippines and Jamaica it was used to cure ailments such as diabetes and constipation.
It’s a fascinating concept to think that vincas, more affectionately known as Cape periwinkle, could be responsible for both saving and taking lives. This much-loved bedding plant is extremely toxic if consumed, yet it contains approximately 70 alkaloids of which many have medicinal properties which have been used in traditional medicine for decades.
These days’ vincas come in some blazing hot colours from pinks, reds and oranges to purples but if you’re more of the soothing type, whites and light pinks are available too. A once dull bed could be transformed overnight, even their leaves are a bright glossy green which is a very pleasant placeholder while waiting for the blooms to appear.
Do you have a sunny patch of soil that you look at and think “nothing will grow here”? That’s where you’re going to plant up a bunch of vinca seedlings! You can water them regularly after planting but only until they’ve settled in nicely and put down roots, so to speak.
After that, cease and desist, because they are the kids who hardly ever stand on the pool steps on a hot day – dry feet and warm face! If you see spotty leaves or the stems start to rot, you know you’ve watered them too much. If the soil is in very good nick they may just punish you by flowering less so be stingy with any compost you add when you’re preparing their bed. Feel free to pinch the top tip of the seedling off if you’d like it to bush out a little more and give you a thicker, sturdier plant.
Is it any wonder that these annuals took the world by storm? So easy to grow, not fussy or needy, wonderful to behold, prolific flowering and can be used in a variety of places including containers, hanging baskets and flower beds.
Content provided by the Bedding Plant Growers Association.
