Vitex

I recieved a beautiful Vitex tree/bush last spring, it was beautiful through the summer and early fall. As the rest of my garden is starting to show signs of the spring wake up....my bush looks like its in hibernation or something. It has dried seed pods on it, it looks bare and no signs of growth....its not brittle. Is it a late bloomer? What I mean is is it a tree that shows signs of growth and flowers later in the spring and blooms in the summer? I just dont want it to die. It seems to like where I put it . Im just not sure and I dont want to be impatient lol. Please advise.

Don't recognise the plant by that name but, any plant that still has the previous years seed heads on the branches is going to have to work all the harder the next year, it has used up a lot of energy producing seeds, thats what plants do, so you really do need to prune these seed heads off, add a handful multi purpose feed around the root area and give it a fork in, remove any dead, crossing branches and the seeds heads, I would think in a few more weeks time you should see little buds come on the stems, you will know then the plant / shrub is OK, not all plants awaken at the same time and not all go into dormancy for winter the same time.

If your really worried, use finger and thumb and hold a branch between, scrape (gently ) away a small area of bark, if the branch is dead it will be dark and dry, if alive, it will be green pale and look alive, dead ones prune back, alive ones leave alone.

Hope this helps you out a bit, good luck. Weenel.

Don't worry about it--I've got several of them and they're not putting out leaves yet (and they've been around for several years so I know for sure they're not dead). They bloom later in the summer so are a bit slower to get going in the spring than things that bloom earlier.

Here in zone 9a my Vitex (Chaste tree) started leafing out just a week or so ago...but we have had temps in the high 60's to mid/high 80's for about a month.

Mine are small but have all leafed out. They are in a protected location and we too have been enduring early summer temps already. Kristi

Out west our nights stay cold for a lot longer than in the south, I think that's why it takes them longer here to get going. Just checked mine yesterday and still no signs of leaves.

That was my thinking, Ecrane....I usually don't see much in the way of leaves until the end of March beginning of April. They are early here this year.

Vitex sp. - along with Lagerstroemia and Fraxinus - are very late to leaf out here in KY.

Patience with these woody plants is the key.

Mine still had it's dried seed pods from last year too but it's leaving out very nicely. If the limbs are still limber, I wouldn't worry about it.