Trumpet call for bindweeds!
MENTION bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) and many gardeners will break out in a cold sweat.
This weed with trumpet-shaped flowers spreads rapidly underground with roots that can extend 15ft or more.
Yet, there’s a bunch of closely related plants that share the same botanical name as this menace that shouldn’t be feared. In fact, I’d go as far as to suggest they should be introduced into plots for their flowers.
Native to southern Europe, the Mediterranean region and North Africa, ornamental bindweeds come in many forms. Among the family are evergreen shrubs, climbers and annuals. One of the best-known species is Convolvulus cneorum, sometimes called silverbush on account of its silvery leaves. Introduced to Britain from the Med in 1640, it forms a 24in-high by 36in-wide mound, and is smothered with white flowers from May until July. Ideal in beds and borders, rock gardens, containers, gravel gardens and for planting en masse as ground cover, its blooms are a magnet to bees and other pollinating insects.
One of my favourite bindweeds is Convolvulus sabatius, a scrambling gem that grows wild in Spain and Italy. Forming a 20in-wide mat of foliage that’s covered with small, funnel-shaped blue flowers between June and September, it’s perfect for trailing over walls, adding to gravel gardens or growing in hanging baskets.
Those looking for a dazzling bedding plant should check out Convolvulus tricolour ‘Blue Ensign’ with its 2½in-wide flowers carried on 15in-tall plants from June to September.