Vitex or chaste trees produce clouds of stunning purple flowers in summertime .
Jean Allsop
Vitex chaste Tree are beautiful and virtually carefree summertime - blossom shrubby trees that attract a spacious smorgasbord of pollinators . It ’s a fast agriculturist that produces dense , upright panicle of flowers , up to 12 inch long , from late saltation to fall . They are typically purple - blue but may be purple , pinkish , or whitened . Both flowers and foliage have a decided spicy fragrance .
Credit:Jean Allsop
Hailing from Europe and parts of Asia , the chaste tree is most often grown as a large , multi - stemmed shrub but can be trim to a undivided - body , 20- to 30 - ft Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree . Several change have a more compact size better suit to pocket-sized gardens . It grows good in fond climate ; in nerveless regions ( Zone 5 and 6 ) it is often farm as a perennial and cut back to the land in wintertime . In spring , it quickly develops new shoots that grow 3 to 5 feet tall , producing , a spectacular flower show in summer .
Where to Plant a Chaste Tree
This heat - loving plant needs full Sunday to grow its serious . It favour slenderly acid to neutral , well - drained soil . Because it grow as broad as it is improbable , be certain to allow plenty of space . The chaste tree makes a spectacular lawn specimen , or several can be planted in a row along a driveway or property line of descent . It is also in force as a background industrial plant in amixed gay margin garden .
In quick clime such as Texas , the chaste Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree has head for the hills cultivation and is considered to have invasive tendency .
How and When to a Plant Chaste Tree
industrial plant chaste tree in natural spring after thedanger of frosthas passed . The plant life are late to leaf out and set out growing , but once they do they grow rapidly . Thoroughly water the plant in its container before gently elevate it out . Loosen the root with a pincer tool or your fingers . Spraying the tooth root testis with a stream of water will further loosen the feeder roots , allowing them to propagate .
Dig a hole twice as all-encompassing and about the same depth as the ancestor ball . If yoursoil is dense clay , add some compost to untie it . Set your plant so that it sit at the same profundity as it was growing in the container ( or slightly above ) and backfill the golf hole with dirt . Tamp the territory as you go to eliminate air pocket . Water when the jam is half filled and again when the cakehole is completely satiate .
Chaste Tree Care Tips
Once established , the chaste tree is virtually carefree . It has few pests and minimum disease issues . Depending on the look you ’re after , one-year pruning may be your big maintenance chore .
Light
locate your chaste tree diagram infull sun , where it get a minimum of 6 hours of direct sunshine each day . While it will grow with less sun , it will not flower nearly as well .
Soil and Water
Well - draining soilis decisive for chaste Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree . In systematically wet soil , root will rot . If your soil is heavy clay , amend it with compost or choose a unlike site . These plants are moderately salt - large-minded .
Water on a regular basis until your newly implant chaste tree is established , after which it commonly will not need additional watering . It stand dry grime .
Temperature and Humidity
This is a estrus - loving plant that also tolerates in high spirits humidity . It can survive winter temperatures to minus 9 ° atomic number 9 . However , in cooler regions , it may suffer winter dieback and is therefore often grown like a perennial that entirely grows back from its root every twelvemonth .
Fertilizer
debar over - fertilizing this flora because it will produce inordinate foliage at the disbursement of flush . A small amount of dense - discharge fertilizer sparge beneath its drip line every other spring should do .
Pruning
Majorpruning is well done in late winter . To clip as a multi - cauline shrub , choose four or five main trunk and cleanse out the gist , transfer most of the twiggy interior side branches , cutting them back to a chief outgrowth . To shorten a branch , cut back to a bud or side branch . If you would wish to work the bush and permit distance for planting beneath it , cut lower limb back to a chief subdivision .
To prune as a individual - trunk tree , take the main torso when the plant is young , removing side arm to the desired tallness before countenance upper branches to develop . cut back the tip of the treeas you would a multi - stemmed shrub , open up the meat and remove twiggy emergence back to principal branches .
or else , trim down the entire plant back to the reason and let it resprout in give . To further continuous flowering and discourage self - sowing , remove drop blooms .
Credit:Marty Baldwin
Potting and Repotting
Small and compact chaste tree varieties are suitable for container growing . Just verify that the container is with child enough to conciliate the root ball and has turgid drainage holes . Excellent drain of the potting mix is equally important .
Repotting the chaste tree to a larger heap with fresh potting soil is necessary every 2 to 3 years when the shrub outgrow its container .
Pests and Problems
The chaste tree is seldom troubled by pest . Thrips , aphid , scale worm , andwhitefliesoccasionally appear , but can unremarkably be controlled with a hard spraying of body of water or insecticidal Georgia home boy .
Few diseases bother this shrub unless it is raise in a soggy location where root putrefaction can occur . deflect such sites , orimprove the soil drainage .
How to Propagate a Chaste Tree
Chaste treesroot well from softwood cuttingstaken in late springtime or former summer . Take press clipping four to six inches long , remove any bloom buds and the bottom leave . Dip the ends intorooting hormoneand insert the cut into pots filled with soaked Baroness Dudevant or perlite and cover them with a plastic tent .
Keep the growing medium damp but not doughy . After about 6 calendar week , roots should form . If more than one cutting has rooted , transplant the extra cuttings to separate containers .
The chaste tree diagram reseeds itself freely so you might find unpaid worker seedling near your plant . get the picture them up and transpose them in a worthy location or a pot .
To start a chaste tree from seminal fluid , take in and extract the seed from mature yield in the capitulation . institute it in a container filled with well - enfeeble soil , urine it , and leave it outdoors over the wintertime . After the seeds have germinated , transplant the seedling to a orotund container in the spring .
Marty Baldwin
Types of Chaste Tree
Selections vary in size and flower color . Newer more compact variety are well suited to smaller landscapes .
‘Shoal Creek’
This cultivar with a shrubby , multi - stemmed growth riding habit grows 10 to 15 metrical unit tall and up to 12 feet wide and bears orotund , blue - violet heyday .
‘Alba’
Growing 10 to 15 foot marvelous and up to 20 feet wide , this variety produces an teemingness of white flowers in recent bound or summer .
‘Rock Steady’
More compact than other varieties , ' Rock Steady ' raise only 4 to 12 foot tall and 4 to 5 feet wide . It produce non - stop lavender blooms over a very retentive time of year .
‘Pink Panicle’
This variety brook medium pinkish flower on compact 4- to 8 - foot plants .
‘Blue Puffball’
Another smaller survival , ' Blue Puffball ' bears sky dismal peak on mounded plant life that gain 4 foot tall and broad .
Frequently Asked Questions
The reason behind misfortunate flowering is most likely lack of sunlight . Chaste Tree demand a minimum of 6 hour of verbatim sun per day . You may need to prune nearby trees or move the chaste tree to a gay spot . Another event could be overfertilizing , which encourages vegetative growth at the expense of flower production .
Both are deciduous shrubs that grow colorful clusters of blossom that attract butterflies and other pollinators but chaste Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and butterfly bush are not tight related . The chaste tree is part of the mint kinfolk while the ( highly invasive ) butterfly bush belong to to the figwort kinsfolk .
Historically the fragrant leaves were recommended as an anaphrodisiac to suppress the libido . Although this is not recognized as a viable use , it collapse rise to the name , chaste tree .
" Vitex agnus - castus . “North Carolina State University Cooperative Extension .
