| Description | Illumination Vinca (Vinca minor) A low creeping evergreen perennial with brightly variegated foliage. Chartreuse yellow in the spring with a dark green edge. Maturing to golden yellow than becoming a creamy yellow. Violet-blue flowers in the spring. |
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| Pronunciation | (VING-ka)(MY-nor) |
| Plant Type | Perennials Hardy, Groundcovers and vines, Site author's observations |
| Hardiness Zone | 4-8 |
| Sunlight | grows best in part sun to shade, tolerates full if there is ample moisture (Zone #5), needs some good sun to bring out the colors |
| Moisture | prefers moist, tolerates average, will get crispy in bone dry |
| Soil & Site | prefers rich, moist well drained but grows happily in average |
| Flowers | blue salverform (having a slender, tubular corolla with the lobes spreading at right angles to the tube) |
| Leaves | chartreuse yellow in the spring, ark green edge, maturing to golden yellow than becoming a creamy yellow. |
| Stems | long wiry prostrate stems |
| Roots | fibrous, shallow |
| Dimensions | indefinite spread, 4-6 inches high |
| Maintenance | to renew or restrict growth cut back in the spring, deer resistant, cut out green stems, |
| Propagation | PP12,132, cuttings, division |
| Cultivar Origin | Discovered in 1995 by Christy Hensler in a bed of Vinca minor. It was later introduced in 2001 by Tony Avent of Plant Delights Nursery USA.(#142) |
| Misc Facts | AKA: Illumination Vinca, Illumination Lesser Vinca, Lesser VInca, Creeping Myrtle 'Illumination', Variegated Vinca, Variegated periwinkle, Vinca minor |
| Author's Notes | Can be used as a hardy ground cover, cascading over walls or rocks or in containers. Seems to be stable variegation. (2013) A change in thought on stable variegation. I have used this in pots many times and the gold color held up well but, in 2012 I planted in a garden, and is now 90% green. In the spring it may revert back? (2015) Is probably 99% green in the garden.. In the summer of 2020, it is 100 % green and vigorous. |
| Notes & Reference | #142-The Plant Hunters Garden (Bobby J Ward) |
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