Bulbs, day-lilies, and peony have no trouble coming up through it. It does spread moderately but does not keep the rain from penetrating. I have it on a slope not in perennial beds where it helps hold soil in place. Is evergreen all winter and has blue flowers profusely in spring and sporadically all season. Looks nice with daffodils in spring.

I love it and always have. I've never seen it overwhelm anything that was particularly vigorous... wimpier perennials may not be so happy with it as a neighbor, but I don't trifle that wimpy plants.

It has recently attained "invasive" status in several states, I THINK, though am not sure. This would indicate it is more successful than other, native groundcovers. Any of you know about this?

I will tell you this: what I have planted in one of my beds arrived in a pot of orange day lilies (rejected as not sale-worthy at a garden club sale!). I rinsed the soil off the whole shebang and seperated out the vinca... from a few measly strands, I now have a very lush planting. So, if it likes the site, it will grow like topsy.

I counsel caution...

Bulbs will have no problem grow thru vinca (I second vinca/daffs combo as a very attractive one).
Any more or less established shrubs shouldn't have problem with such neighbor. I have a hydrangea happily growing in a sea of vinca. No problem there, even knowing that hydrangea would like to be on a wetter side.
The only shrubs I'd be worry about (maybe wrongly) to underplant with vinca are rhodies and azaleas since they have their roots very close to the ground and heavily dependent on nutrients/water from the surface.
Agressive? To the some extent, but groundcovers suppose to be like that, isn't?

VM is a great groundcover, especially when flowering in spring on its new growth. Also it in my area it is evergreen to semi-evergreen. Only during the brutal '04 winter was it winterburned to the ground. My VM stays green in the winter even when the grass is brown. VM is aggressive but it doesn't climb, and it only gets up to 6 inches tall. I have only lost a low growing Erica Carnea to VM. I have Hellebores, daffodils, some crocus, hyacinths, roses, astible, growing up through the VM groundcover.

I want to chime in and warn you to be careful with it. It is indeed a great groundcover and looks good all year. However, it is very aggressive and can easily overtake everything around it. I have spent 2 years removing it from an area where it has choked out all the roses, some shrubs and some very established creeping phlox (which I want to keep). Pulling it out, I noticed that the soil was very dry around the vinca, so I think it does absorb a lot of moisture, more so than I would like in that area.

I am replacing it with other spring-flowering phlox groundcover varieties that are less invasive, plus bulbs.

I also installed a barrier between the vinca that still exists in that area, to keep it from creeping into areas that I don't want it.

Personally, I think there are many more plants that look just as good but are not as troublesome.

Ellen

Thanks for all of the info. I was starting to conclude that this stuff isn't so bad after all until Ellen posted her scary observations. I like the way this groundcover looks so I'm going to give it a try. I hope this stuff doesn't attack me after it gets settled in.

I Love it!
We have alot of it. It was here when we bought the house.
It's in bloom now and looks So pretty with the daffs poking through. It doesn't harm any of my shrubs.
I have removed it from some areas with no problem. I find it much more easy to control then some of the other ground covers that the previous owner planted. I think I will be pulling up lamium & ajuga forever!