Like lilacs but can’t get them to grow in your area? Try vitex (vitex agnus-castus) as a great substitute.
Vitex, known as Texas lilac and chaste tree, is a large beautiful shrub (or small tree) that sports an abundance of violet spikes in early summer. Then, throughout the rest of the summer, it blooms sporadically. In warmer areas, it may bloom until first frost.
Vitex is drought and heat tolerant, which makes it an ideal replacement for lilac in hotter climates and milder winters. It loves sun and heat, and well-drained soils. In fact, it’s such a hardy tree that the Texas Department of Highways plants it along highways and on medians. It needs little water and can even be used in a xeric garden.
Pest-resistant
Deer won’t eat it! That’s enough to merit is as an addition to many gardens. In fact, vitex has very few natural enemies. Vitex extract has even been used as a pest repellant, and has been effective against army worms, diamondback moth, hairy caterpillar, rice leaf borer, rice stem borer and semi-looper. Although deer won’t eat it, they may rub their antlers against the branches, and may even break off some of the lower ones. Don’t worry. This won’t hurt the plant, and may even help it. At worst, it will remind the gardener to prune it.
Butterflies and Hummingbirds
Although pests don’t like it, butterflies, bees and hummingbirds love vitex. And, since it blooms all summer and has loads of nectar, it provides food for all of these beneficials throughout the blooming season.
Size and Growth
Vitex can grow up to 15 feet tall, and just as wide, and it can grow very, very fast. It also has a coarse, unruly look unless it is pruned. Some experts advise pruning it back to the ground. However, a gardener with an eye toward beauty, can prune vitex into a striking small tree. If you don’t have an eye for asymmetry, though, don’t attempt it. Vitex trained into a large “bonsai” shape will be striking, especially in bloom.
Spectacular and Fragrant Flower Spikes
Although vitex is originally a native of China and India, it was brought to North America in 1670 and has become widely naturalized since then. Horticulturalists in North America have bred a number of varieties, selectively breeding for color and large and spectacular and fragrant flower spikes. The flowers are also long-lasting in flower arrangements. Three of the most popular are Montrose Purple, LeCompte and Shoal Creek. All three of these are sold as Texas Lilac Vitex. All three of these varieties have spikes eight to 10 inches long. Deadhead spikes immediately after blooms are spent. This will encourage more and more blooms. Also remember to remove seed heads. The seeds may not breed true and may produce must less attractive plants.
Propagation
There are a number of propagation methods for vitex.
Semi-hardwood cuttings, treated with plant growth hormones and planted into a sterile medium are one way to ensure true copies of the parent plant. (Growing plants from cuttings is essentially cloning, so any new plant will be an exact genetic replica of the parent).
Seeds can be sown outdoors in the fall or after last frost in the spring.
Layering is another method of growing more plants and this is essentially cloning as well.
Hippocrates Used Vitex
Hippocrates, Dioscorides and Theophrastus all mentioned vitex as an “official” medicinal plant. Hippocrates mentioned it as a cure for injuries, inflammation and swelling of the spleen.
The Latin name for Vitex (Vitex agnus-castus means “chaste tree.”) That name comes from the belief that the plant suppressed libido in women.
In Europe, the Catholic Church created a male version of this idea by ordering vitex blossoms on the clothing of novice monks. This, the church believed, suppressed the libido of the junior holy men. In fact, it is also known as “monk’s pepper”. (There is no scientific data to support the idea that vitex actually suppresses the libido, or that it has any medicinal effects.)
