Saturday, June 30, 2007

Virginia Sweetspire (Itea virginica 'Henry's Garnet')


Virginia Sweetspire
Itea virginica 'Henry's Garnet'
(eye-TEE-uh) (vir-JIN-ih-kuh)
Grossulariaceae

This plant has performed well for me. It can grow in a moist semi-shady location, which is always a plus. The flowers are fragrant and the red branches offset the green foliage nicely. It can spread a little too much if it is happy but I don’t find removing the suckers to be a problem. The fall color is the real show in my opinion as it is a wonderful kind of brick red color with some variations to purple as it goes through the autumn season. Great for the woodland garden and hardy to USDA Zone 5.

Today I am going to buy a few more plants. I have to get 50-60 Green Sheen Pachysandra and a few low perennials for along a new garage/barn that one of my customers built in Pound Ridge.

I have been going back and adding titles to some of my other posts as well as correcting my lousy grammar and spelling. I hope I haven’t confused anyone with publishing old posts. I just couldn’t figure out any other way to do it.

4 comments:

RUTH said...

I'm always interested in plants that can tolerate some shade as my garden spend much of its day in the shade. I must find out about Zones so I know if something will grow here in the UK or not.

Digital Flower Pictures said...

Ruth,

I left you a link in Sunday's post about the hardiness zones for the UK

Ki said...

Great photo of the Itea flowers. I thought it might be a nice shrub to have but when I google images of the plant it looked less impressive. Looks sort of like the summer sweet we dug up or a butterfly bush. Too scraggly for me.

Digital Flower Pictures said...

Ki,
It sometimes take a little while to reach its full potential. It wouldn't be good as a focal point but is nice on the edge of the garden or the woods. The fall color is superb.