One year ago, our March 2024 newsletter featured an article about Buddleia, titled, “Butterfly Bush: Dark Truths Revealed“. Although, now it’s a year later, these dark truths are worth revisiting: You will find that this non-native, invasive plant is difficult to control; it out-competes native vegetation; and it rapidly invades meadows, forest edges, dunes, stream and river banks. Read on for a viable alternative.
Purple Panacea, “A love letter to Vitex”
What follows a very short story about friendship and Buddleia’s “Purple Panacea”.
Question: What do you get when your best friend is a master gardener, a professional landscaper, and is involved, (and sometimes obsessed) with Nursery Management?
Answer: The gifts of this long friendship are too many to list; however, her offerings of researched-based information about plant practices and enticing new plants on the market are definitely high on the list.
Most recently, she sent a Nursery Management link, which included an article titled, “A Love Letter to Vitex”. This piqued my interest because Vitex is a plant that I already love. I discovered it a few years ago, during a local nursery stroll, and was delighted when I realized it could be a viable alternative to Buddleia’s enticing appeal. The Vitex cultivar Flip Side is perfectly described by its name, with its olive-green top foliage and a surprise purple underside. I am pleased to tell you that Vitex, Flip Side is thriving in my landscape- even after the last 2 years of extreme summer heat, winter frosts, and measurable snow. See below for photos, and a brief summary of Vitex’s many attributes, followed by a link for delving deeper into how Vitex outshines Buddleia .
Photos and information: courtesy of David Roberts, Director of Plant Breeding, Bailey Innovations,
Just a few of many great attributes: Vitex are incredibly tough plants, naturally drought and salt-tolerant, deer-resistant, and prone to very few pests and diseases. Every part of Vitex is fragrant, and history is littered with accounts of the leaves being used as an anaphrodisiac, hence the common name, chastetree. Vitex has a naturally long flowering period, with a flush of blooms in early summer that will continue to produce blooms until fall.
If you have a horticulture question that I can look into for our next Garden Club newsletter,
please send me a note below
Stay Calm & Garden on
Christine Pritts
