Virginia Sweetspire (Itea Virginica) – 3 Gallon Pot

USDA Plant Hardiness Zones: 5a-9b Find Your Zone

Plant Type:  Deciduous Flowering Shrub 

Flower Color:  White

Flower Size:  Small, packed along 5-6″ long x 1″ wide racemes 

Flowering Period:  Late Spring to Early Summer

Flower Type:  5-6″ long racemes

Fragrant Flowers:  Yes

Foliage Color:  Green, Orange-Red to Purple in Fall!

Fragrant Foliage:  No 

Berries:  Orange capsules are showy in Fall and the seeds are edible

Berry Color:  Copper-Orange

Attracts:  Butterflies, Hummingbirds, Beneficial Pollinators, Small Mammals, Visual Attention

Resistances / Tolerances:  Deer, Drought (when established), Disease, Heat, Insect, Wet Soil

An extremely showy and easy-to-grow North American native flowering shrub, the Virginia Sweetspire brings outstanding color in both the spring and fall landscape. In late spring to early summer, abundant, long spires up to 6 inches long are packed with fragrant little white flowers the butterflies and hummingbirds will flock to. The spires cascade downwards from the ends of stems on an upright, thickly branched, shrub with gracefully arching branches to around 6 feet tall and equally as wide. Following the flowers are showy copper-orange capsules filled with edible seeds that both you and the songbirds and small mammals can enjoy. In fall, the lustrous green leaves turn to long-lasting, stunning shades of gold, orange and purple. The dense shrub provides nesting and shelter for wildlife throughout the year. 

Growing 4 to 6 feet tall and equally as wide, Virginia Sweetspire is a perfect choice for adding elegance, fragrance, and color to just about any area of the landscape in garden beds or containers. It is ideal for use as an accent, in groupings, or as a natural hedge in sunny to partially shaded landscape and flowering shrub borders or home foundation plantings and grows well even under large trees provided there is ample moisture. A fine addition to butterfly and hummingbird gardens, bog gardens, cut flower gardens, white or red theme gardens, or sunny woodland borders or shady woodland gardens.

Suggested Spacing:  3 feet apart for solid hedges;  10 feet or more apart for space between plants

Virginia Sweetspire is very easy to grow in most any moist but well drained to boggy or even occasionally wet soils. Itea grows well in full sun or shade and everything between! It flowers best with at least 4 hours of sunlight per day or all-day lightly filtered sun. Plants growing in all-day full sun will appreciate a consistently moist soil. We suggest at least 4 hours of sun for best flowering. Very little pruning is ever required, however, to reduce the size or shape of the plant prune just after the blooms have faded. Avoid removal of more than 30 percent of the plants foliage when pruning. On older plants some of the heaviest canes can be removed to increase vigor. 

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