Vinca Soiree Kawaii series
* Common name: Vinca Soiree Kawaii series
Vinca Soiree Kawaii Pink, left, and Soiree Kawaii White Peppermint, right.
* Botanical name: Catharanthus hybrids
* What it is: Annual vincas are some of the best flowers for our hottest, sunniest, and driest spots in the yard, but what’s different about the Soiree Kawaii series is the smaller flowers with narrower petals. They look like little five-petaled pinwheels, prompting growers to call them a “micro-blooming vinca.”
Despite the more demure look, plants bloom heavily and come in six color varieties: Coral Reef, Blueberry Kiss, Light Purple, White Peppermint, Red Shades, and Pink.
The series has good disease resistance and isn’t a favorite of deer, bunnies, and other common garden-marauders.
* Size: Grows six to 10 inches tall. Space one foot apart.
* Where to use: Plant in your hottest, sunniest garden beds, such as southern or western foundations, in open full-sun beds, and along sunny driveways and sidewalks. Although full sun is best, vinca does reasonably well in part shade, too. They’ll also grow well in sunny pots.
* Care: Plant out well after danger of frost passes in spring (mid-May or later). Vinca don’t like anything even close to freezing temperatures.
Keep damp the first few weeks, then water needed only in extended dry spells. Work compost and timed-release flower fertilizer into soil at planting. Supplemental liquid flower fertilizer every month or so throughout the growing season maximizes bloom but isn’t required.
Yank plants and compost them when they die at fall’s first frost.
In pots and baskets, water daily when it doesn’t rain, and fertilize with a half-strength flower fertilizer every week or two.
* Great partner: Any in the Soiree Kawaii series pairs well with any ornamental grass or green evergreen, such as juniper, Hinoki cypress, holly, boxwood, or birds nest spruce. They also like similar conditions as roses… just try to coordinate the vinca colors with the particular rose blooms. And they look good with purple-blooming, sun-loving perennials, such as Russian sage, asters, and lavender.