Shoal Creek Vitex
Vitex agnus-castus ‘Shoal Creek’ · a blue-violet chaste tree (vitex)
A vigorous chaste tree with long spikes of blue-violet flowers from early summer into fall and grey-green leaves that smell of sage, a showy specimen for hot, dry and coastal gardens, and deer leave it alone. Give it sun and drainage. In cold zones it dies back but regrows. It can become invasive.
- Mature size
- 12 × 10 ft
- 3.5 × 3 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 6a–9b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Dry to moist
- Blooms
- May–Sep
Shoal Creek Vitex at its mature size
A mature Shoal Creek Vitex grows 4 to 15 feet tall and 4 to 12 feet wide, taller than most people.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension, The Tree Center.
Through the year
What Shoal Creek Vitex looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Dormant · Dec–Mar
Bare gray-brown stems.
New growth · Apr–May
Fresh gray-green leaves, no flower spikes yet.
In flower · Jun–Sep
Long upright violet-blue flower spikes at the tips.
In leaf · Oct–Nov
Gray-green hand-shaped leaves, flowers finished.
Growing Shoal Creek Vitex
- Grows well in
- The Plains and Mountain West, the Southeast, the desert Southwest, and California.
- Growth rate
- Fast
- Good for
- Foundation planting, specimen, drought tolerant, deer resistant, fragrant, and fast growing
- Leaves
- Drops its leaves in winter
- Native to
- Selection of a species native to the Mediterranean and Central Asia
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Shoal Creek Vitex, that’s about 10 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Shoal Creek Vitex in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.