We had trees removed for some remodeling we are doing and in the process they took down a beautiful Holly that was not supposed to be removed. It is on the West side of my house and gets filtered afternoon sun because of trees. I am looking for an ornamental tree to replace it as it is outside my kitchen window. I am thinking about a Vitex although they loose their leaves in the winter and need pruning help. They can also look more like a big plant than a tree I think. I also saw some kind of weeping redbud at a nursery today and it caught my interest. Has anyone seen or had experience with one of these in their landscape? Any other recommendations? I would have liked a dogwood but at this nursery they told me they don't sale them as they don't do well. (they do grow in the wild here though!)
Bonnie
weeping redbud
We have a 'Forest Pansy' Redbud and, what appears to be a weeping 'Forest Pansy'...both are in full shade with no direct sunlight and after planting 5 years ago, we are finally getting lots of blooms from the upright FP. The weeping has not bloomed for us after 3 years in the ground. I am sure the drought and extreme heat have impacted on both trees, despite water drips and a little dillo dirt in early spring. I think the secret is the full shade.
I have a vitex and love it. It's drought tolerant and trouble free and is covered in gorgeous blooms for most of the summer. Here's a pic of mine from last year. I can't put my hands of the pic from this year, but it was a solid mass of blloms and one than one person stooped in the street to take a pic of it and ask questions about it.
Crowelli,
Do you do much pruning on your Vitex?
I do prune it. I had one older one here that had been hacked on so badly we finally gave up and removed it. This one gets pruned hard once a year. When the first flush of blooms finish, we clip off the seed pods and it blooms again. The pic above is the second bloom, which isn't as heavy as the first. We'll get at least 3 rounds of heavy blooms per summer. It's a super plant.
Guess I am going to have to get one of those!
My DH recently brought home a "Pansy" Redbud tree (not sure if it's Forest or not) and it says full son. I thought I'd had the perfect spot, now not so sure. It would get sun until about 4:00 pm. Any thoughts on this?
Thanks,
Deb
Your redbud will be fine with sun until 4. Full sun doesn't always mean "full Texas sun" :)
Crow
Great, Crow! Thanks for the help. Now I'll get him to start digging! LOL!