Greater periwinkle

Family Kutrovye. Native range - Crimea, the Caucasus, the Mediterranean.

A perennial creeping evergreen plant. Stems root along their entire length, forming dense decorative mats. Leaves leathery, ovate, glabrous, glossy, 4-8 cm long, with ciliate margins. Flowers solitary, blue, of a particular shade - pervenche (from the French name of periwinkle), up to 5 cm in diameter, on flower stalks up to 40 cm tall. Blooms from May for 30-35 days. Winter-hardy, but in snowless winters covering with conifer boughs is desirable to protect the leaves.