Maybe vinca?

Could be Plumbago? The flowers look to clustered for vinca. My vinca usually has single flowers. Not sure, I can never tell what a plant is from a picture. It's a vision thing for me.

thank you so much. it is plumbago. I thought it might be but a friend didn't think it was. took the photo to a nursery but the owner didn't know. so when you said plumbago I looked it up. yes. now is to find some but probably won't until next year.

When you buy more plumbago, be sure you buy the right one that is cold-hardy here. There are two different plumbagos, both with blue flowers, commonly sold in the nursery trade and one is semi-tropical, hardy only to zone 8, and the other one (which is the one I think you have) is a ground-cover type plant that is cold hardy to zone 5. Both of them often are merely labeled only as "Plumbago", leading gardeners to bring home the wrong one sometimes.

The tall plumbago is actually a shrub that will get 6-10' high and wide, and it is the semi-tropical one cold-hardy reliably only to zone 8 and higher zones. It is Plumbago auriculata and sometimes is called Cape plumbago.

The shorter, ground-cover type of plumbago is Ceratostigma plumbaginoides and it is hardy all the way to zone 5. Yours looks like it is this type of plumbago, so I'll link more info about it.. It often is referred to by the common name leadwort.

Hope this helps,

Dawn

Plumbago (Leadwort)

thanks so much. can't find it around here now. will check your link

hi mulberryknob,

I don't see sandy anymore.

I have some growing but am trying to get it to spread, so thought of buying a flat of it, but it only comes in gallons online. next time you want to get rid of a lot let me know. thanks, jessica

So is this the same thing?

that looks like the same plant only your leaves are darker, so at first I didn't think it was the same.

Mine is under the front porch in a pot. It has been there about 4 years through drought and freezing and burning up. It comes back every year. We always wondered what it was. I don't know all the plants in the plant kingdom yet, like some folks. I am glad this thread came up!

In Texas, I grew the other plumbago (the semi-tropical one) as an understory plant in the shade of tall trees. It was beautiful and sometimes survived zone 8 winters in Fort Worth, though the colder years would kill it. It is one of the plants I grew in Ft. Worth that I can't grow here (except as an annual) and I really miss its lovely blue flowers. I haven't grown the one Jessaka and Scott have, but I think it is beautiful and do see it sold on the ground cover aisle in local nurseries in spring and summer. Any ground cover I've ever planted in our front yard (which is not fenced to keep out the rabbits) is just rabbit chow for the cottontails, except for purple winter creeper, so that's the ground cover we have.