Is It OK to Pinch Vinca?

Annual Vinca

• Named for its superficial resemblance to the flowers of a perennial ground cover vine, annual vinca is a summer bedding plant used widely to provide pops of color in the landscape when other plants start to look bedraggled by heat. Originally only available in hues of pink, red and white, lavender and blue hues have been developed, many with a brightly colored contrasting eye in the center of the flower. Annual vinca can be used either as an upright or spreading ground cover when planted en masse. Though it is killed by frost, annual vinca is known to reseed itself and is considered potentially invasive in some areas.

Effects of Pinching

• As with other plants that respond well to pinching, annual vinca initially looks a bit bare but quickly regenerates new and redoubled stems and foliage where old stems were removed. Pinching is achieved by doing exactly like it sounds: selecting a soft-stemmed branch for removal and taking it off the plant by pinching it off between your thumb and forefinger. Annual vinca left to its own devices eventually begins to look leggy and sparse. Doing away with the plant’s crown encourages side branches to grow and promotes increased flowering.

Perennial Vinca

• Though it is in the same plant family, the trailing, evergreen ground cover also known as periwinkle (Vinca minor) is unrelated to the summer bedding flower. It prefers different growing conditions, performing best in light shade in a range of soils, even those with a coarse, sandy texture. Perennial vinca is hardy between U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 3 through 8. Though beloved in the landscape for its ability to cover troublesome spots and for the stunning display of lavender flowers in spring, it is considered invasive in many parts of the United States, particularly forested areas, because it grows thick enough on forest floors to outcompete and smother native plant species.

Effects of Pruning

• Unlike annual vinca, the cutting back of perennial vinca vines is less a matter of selective pinches here and there than a broad-scale and heavy-handed approach. Because it is a woody vine, plants are pruned rather than pinched; experts recommend grabbing up entire handfuls and chopping them off with pruning shears or garden loppers, and those at the National Park Service advise razing entire areas with a lawnmower to remove unwanted vines. Prune plants every year to keep them in check. Vinca vines respond like annual vinca, sending out multiple new shoots that give the entire plant a thicker appearance. Avoid pruning late in the year if promoting new growth is your goal, because new shoots do not have time to harden off and will be killed by frost.