Euonymus, Wintercreeper 'Coloratus'

This plant can either be a blessing or not depending on your situation. I research plants before I buy them, and intensively consider the...Read Morem sometimes for a year before I get them, especially when it comes to roses, vines, or trees. Why? Because they're all going to require care and they all have the potential to get out of hand or huge.
I am a vine fan. I love vines. I'm shooting to have every vine out there on the property other than kiwi That's over my head. But this one, there's a landscaping show from Britain with Alan Titschmarch and in one of the episodes they show this gorgeous plant Purple Wintercreeper growing up the side of a plain 2 story house. He said it was a hideous blank brick wall and it took years for it get that tall. It was gorgeous, and it had another vine growing with it. The whole place was stunning. Consider your situation. If you have an area that's large and you don't want to hassle with it, or mow it, or put grass down, this would be a good deal. It can't be worse than wisteria. You know the old joke on that - don't let your dog nap around the vine because it could be wound up on the dog when it wakes up. ha ha. It just depends on what you want to cover. And how much space and how much you may enjoy the wildness of it. I know in landscaping I learned to stop vines from growing up trees, just cut them at the base of the tree, they die all the way up, and then you just yank it down. So I remain neutral on this subject. I wouldn't plant it in a tiny yard though. Good luck.

DO NOT PLANT. This was probably the biggest mistake (of many) that I've made re gardening. I wanted to cover a bare area and didn't want ...Read Moreto use ivy. Wish I'd been warned about the invasiveness of purple winter creeper and other problems it causes. When it is horizontal on the ground, I think it's normal state, it becomes a mass of 'trip wires'. When I have cut it, it does grow vertically (to my surprise) and so far has grown between 2 to 3 ft. high. If I don't keep cutting it back, I don't know its upper limit. Growing vertically it sorta looks like a nice bush, or lots of them, in my yard. But still has new growth at the bottom trying to take over every available space. When I do trim or hack it, if I don't pick up every little itty bitty piece of stem, then I'll have another plant that will sprout. I recently noticed that it's getting ready to flower, something it's never done. Think I'd better get outside and lop off those flower heads now before they actually bloom. What'd like to do is lop off the head of the landscaper who planted it. One other problem I've encountered when trying to do a severe cutback is that the plant then forms into a hard clump at its base so that instead of a trip wire problem it creates a 'stub your toe on a hard rock type surface'. If you could walk a few steps in my shoes then you would know what I mean.
I suppose if one were to use it in a place where it would never be touched, it might be useful. But I'd be wary of it.

Foliage is deep green during the growing season and turns dark purple in winter. Like all cultivars of this species, it frequently sports...Read More to other forms. These forms need to be cut out when they appear, as they can outcompete the original cultivar.

I gave up planting this species before I realized its invasive potential, because I've seen so many plantings infested and disfigured or even killed by euonymus scale and crown gall.

Once established, this species can be very difficult to get rid of.

It is naturalized in most of the eastern and central states. The US Forest Service, the National Park Service, the Nature Conservancy, and other organizations concerned with the preservation of natural areas in North America all have expressed concern about the invasive impact of this species on our environment. It does flower and fruit, and the seeds are spread by birds.

It appears to be most destructive in Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and neighboring states.

In Massachusetts, I often find seedlings when weeding. Birds distribute the seeds widely. Cutting back climbing stems will temporarily reduce seeding.

It is a pretty plant. My great criticism of it is that it grows rampantly and one must be careful when placing it anywhere. It has been s...Read Moreold a lot in the Chicago, Illinois area as one of the principle evergreen groundcovers along with English-Ivy, Japanese Pachysandra, and Common Periwinkle. It turns into a climbing vine by aerial roots if it hits a tree, shrub, wall, fence, or anything to give it altitude. It can develop a good amount of Crown Gall disease near the ground and it gets picked on by Euonymus Scale insect. I saw a large mass of it as groundcover and climbing vine on the stone walls of the east side headquarters at Morton Arboretum in the 1990's killed off by Euonymus Scale. I used to work as a groundsman around a hospital and there was a large mass of it as groundcover at the east entrance in a confined area. We in the crew had to prune away the climbing branches going up the brick walls or on other plants, and we had to mow it down with a lawnmower we set up at a higher height with a collection bag attached a few times each year. If anyone has a wooded, shaded yard, I would rather see native wildflowers and ferns of the woods present rather than the four popular evergreen groundcovers.