| I have a 3 yr., old Vitex, and it needs to be pruned. It blooms later in the summer through frost. |
| The Chaste Tree is Vitex agnus-castus, a member of the Verbenacaea family. It's a deciduous multi-stemmed shrub to small tree, native to the Mediterranean basin. The plant makes impressive whorls of lavender flowers on long racemes, and the leaves and flowers exude exotic aromas, especially when bruised. The plants produce berries at the end of the season and ripe or semi-ripe berries are sometimes used to make a fragrant liquid extract for tea. Vitex is easy to grow, a beautiful and resilient plant which grows fast under appropriate care and will bounce back after great abuse. Frost tolerant, but may die back to root during extremely cold winters. You can prune your plant back in the wintertime and expect lots of new stem and leaf growth the following spring. |
