My neighbor just got one and it is gorgeous and smells heavenly. How much sun does it require to really bloom?
Anyone have a vitex- chaste tree?
I had mine in part-shade and it was very floppy and little blooming. I moved it to full sun and it is blooming more and generally looks happier. I love those, my neighbor thought it was a pot plant.
Go to this thread and look at htop's response. She provided a link that helped me enormously. Very good info about it. I also love this tree and am about to plant a couple at my house.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/620630/
I've got two vitex in my garden. One is a new baby about 3 feet tall. The other one is over 10 years old. Both are trouble free with no disease or pest problems as long as they are in a sunny, well draining location. They bloom on new growth and will keep blooming throughout summer if you remove spent blooms and don't let it make seeds. The leaves have a very pleasoant aroma when crushed. The older one was here when we bought the house and had been very poorly pruned, so the shape of it is being worked on a little each year to try to improve it. Here's a pic of the baby one. There's also info on the Texas A&M Superstars web site.
http://pics.davesgarden.com/pics/crowellli_1152304150_184_tn.jpg
I have a very young vitex. About 2' tall. It gets sun till about 2 pm. Do you think that's enough sun?? It sure seems to be growing slowly. It is fixing to bloom soon. I plan to get maybe two more.
Lin
I have two of these and I am going to be planting two more from cuttings - all about 2 foot tall and all of them doing great. They are all in full sun with little water.
Sounds like I need to move my tree so it will get more sun. I have a perfect spot so I will move it this fall. I love these trees!
Lin
I love them too--tougher than nails...can't kill 'em and if you let them get full enough at the bottom they will shade out nutgrass and bermuda--that's saying something around here.
Take note that these can get quite large when mature. My older one is about 20 feet tall and about 8 feet across. We've pruned it up from the bottom so it's more like a tree than a shrub because we had to have access behind it. It takes very well to pruning, similar to crepe myrtles, and blooms on new growth. Just thought I'd let y'all know you need to leave room for the mature size of these.
I have a vitex on the hot, sun broiled south side of my house. It's probably 10 years old. It's about 15' tall and 10' wide. It's pruned up like a multi-trunked tree ~crape myrtle style~ but when we moved into this house almost 3 years ago it was a big huge shrub. This tree is so tolerable of neglect! I don't do much of anything to it, yet it's beautiful! It's not blooming right now, but it probably will again soon. Just be careful - bees like the blooms. They'll leave you alone, unless you hit the canopy of the tree with a jet of water from the hose. Yeah, I learned this one the hard way. At least I can still run fast when I need to.
Thanks for the heads up greenbud, I can't outrun a fire ant, so I know I can't outrun a bee!
The biggest bee magnets around here are the coral vine and the clerodendrum ugandense--hands down. Vitex not that bad--can at least deadhead it.
I love my two vitex trees too...I have a lavender and white one...and yes, the bees do love em'. I keep deadheadin' em' and they put out new blooms pretty regularly. And they do smell wonderful after a rain...the rare time that we actually GET rain...lol
crowellii is right, a mature tree can take up a lot of space. It is draught tolerant, takes the heat and likes lots of sun. Besides bees, I also get hummers in the late summer. I started some seeds and now have three new babies that are coming along nicely!
hmm....are they pretty easy to start from seed? How did ya do it? I'd love to have a few more... And is it really possible to start one from a cutting of a branch?