Reshaping Vitex

Back when our grandmas were little toddler girls, vitex was a hot plant in Texas. It’s also called “lilac chaste tree” for some reason I choose not to explore and also “Texas lilac” but I don’t understand why. We’re just going to stick with “vitex.”

In those earlier days our city lots were much larger, so they could accommodate shrubs that were proportionately larger as well. And that’s where we met vitex. It grows to be 15 or 18 ft. tall and wide. That was fine back then, but if that’s about all the space you have in a tiny modern urban backyard, you don’t want your vitex to hog it all. So, as lots grew smaller, interest in planting vitex did, too.

During the 1960s, landscapers had become fond of crape myrtles and yaupon hollies, two long-popular shrubs in Texas landscapes. They had removed lower branches and converted them into small trees instead of very large shrubs.

Those landscapers, or their offspring, decided to try the same trick on vitex. And it worked. Best of all, the result was a tree that produced blue flowers – rarest of the colors for small-flowering trees.

That’s where we are now: Vitex being used as an accent tree in medium-sized urban home and commercial landscapes, often in clusters and groupings.

Vitex plants grow very vigorously. They quickly produce branches where they aren’t wanted. They can become congested and somewhat unattractive during the winter. That’s the time to get out the pruning saws and loppers and tidy things up.

I thought you might like to see the “Before” and “After” of my pruning of our vitex several winters ago. I hope it’s of help to you.

How I pruned our vitex…
As our vitex outgrew its spot in our garden, I removed several of the largest branches that were either too close to the ground or rubbing against one another. I trimmed away some that had grown too tall, making sure I didn’t leave any stubs in the process.

Pruning opened our plant up considerably and left it with a more attractive and natural growth form, but it did require patience. Two of us spent about 90 minutes doing this pruning. Anything faster would likely have been done carelessly.

You don’t necessarily have to do this right now, during the holiday period, but certainly get the job finished before buds start to swell in early spring.

*It should also be noted that the growing season in South Texas is long enough that if you give vitex a second fairly heavy trim immediately following the late spring bloom you’ll usually get a new flush of growth and fall blooms as a bonus. But that’s just for gardeners essentially in the I-10 corridor and southward.

And a final option to consider if you’re just now planting your vitex: Consider the dwarf forms that are available in the market during the growing season. They’re not extremely common, but they do offer the chance at compact plants without a lot of extra pruning.