where are you?? and when did you plant these??? early spring ????

whats the media in the pot... how old.. reused????

sure looks like it might be too much water... how and when do you water.. do you check if it needs water beforehand ... is there a drainage hole .... are you in one of the areas that has had constant heavy rain???

i thought they liked some amount of shade .... is the sun cooking the pot????

ken

Vinca likes is hot and dry. Without knowing your zone, or where you are, it is hard to say exactly what has happened, but this looks like aerial phytopthora

thank you for your wonderful notes!

I am in Georgia, zone 7B, I am sure this area is good for planting vincas. The container above is only with 2 vincas,I planted vincas since I purchased them at June, same conditions for all the vincas, but majority of them survive, about 20% are dead.
I watered all the vincas together, not too much water, but I do water them everyday, if I don't water them, the plant looks like very thirsty.

I also have lots of red salvia, all of them survive, so I just don't understand what happened to my vincas.

Catharanthus roseus is very prone to root diseases, like Rhizoctonia and Phytophthora. They need excellent drainage, and plenty of full sun and heat. I've mentioned earlier in this forum that I've known them to be a successful parking island plant...surrounded by baking asphalt and no irrigation.

The reason your plants wilt if you don't water them every day is because the roots have rotted. Too much water can cause wilting, too. It's a vicious circle sort of thing.

Mine always tended to get some sort of grey mold, I think from too much water and crowding at the end of summer after they filled in. And I agree that they do much better along a hot sidewalk or driveway.

There is a vinca that was developed for disease resistance. The seed grown name is Cora series; grown from cuttings it's known as the Nirvana series.

The plants are usually more expensive than the huge displays of the $.99 plants at the big box stores. They are specifically labeled Cora or Nirvana.

I recently bought a lovely purple two-plant Cora container at Home Depot because I wanted to add this color to an area. In the past, I've found new plants are easy to propagate from cuttings.

Several years ago I bought Nirvana Pink Splash at one of the big box stores and they self-seed each year, looking as good as the year I originally planted them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Disease resistant vincas

VERY interesting, juneroses. I am going to look into those series. I've not kept up with this plant very well.

Just in case that link causes some confusion...the plant they call 'annual' periwinkle (vinca) is actually Catharanthus roseus, which happens to be a tender perennial. I know that we use the other names as common names, but it's soooooo easy to get our information all confused with the REAL Vinca (minor and major), periwinkle...shade loving hardy perennials.