Photo: Alex Abair, CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Virginia Sweetspire

Itea virginica

Also called Virginia willow, tassel-white.

Fragrant white flower spikes in June, red and gold fall leaves that hang on into winter, and roots that are happy in wet ground.

Tolerates wet soilShowy flowersFall colorTolerates shadeWildlife valueErosion control

Type: Shrub
Mature height: 3–6 ft
USDA zones: 5–9
Growth rate: Medium
Sun: Full, Part, Shade
Soil moisture: Average, Wet
Grows wild in: Stream banks, floodplain forests, the forest understory, swamps and wet flats
Native range: 20 states and the District of Columbia, north to Pennsylvania, south to Florida and west to Texas
List all 21
Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and the District of Columbia
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Virginia sweetspire is a mounded shrub of arching stems that lines the streams and swamps of the eastern states, in the shade of bigger trees. It spreads by root suckers into a broad colony, which is why it is planted to hold a bank and why one plant needs room. Deer mostly leave it alone, and it is widely grown for its flowers and its fall color. Plant it along a ditch, a pond edge or the low corner of a yard that never dries out, where it holds the soil and blooms after the spring shrubs are done.

Size, growth and what to expect

Virginia sweetspire grows at a medium pace, about a foot and a half of height a year in our growth estimator until it reaches its size. It reaches 3 to 6 feet tall and about as wide, with stems that arch outward, and it suckers into a colony. The Chicago Botanic Garden notes wild plants to 8 feet.

The flowers are the show: fragrant white spikes 3 to 6 inches long that droop from the branch tips in late May and June, worked by butterflies and other pollinators. The fruit is a small brown capsule of dust-fine seed that ripens from August to October and hangs on through the winter, and songbirds pick at the seed. The leaves turn red, orange and gold in fall and often stay on until early winter.

It grows wild from New Jersey south to Florida and west to Missouri, Louisiana and east Texas. Its home is wet wooded stream banks, swamps, wooded floodplains and low pine barrens.

How to grow Virginia Sweetspire

Virginia sweetspire takes full sun to shade, and it blooms and colors best with sun for part of the day. It wants a moist to wet soil, acid to neutral, and it stands in water after a storm without harm. In an alkaline soil the leaves yellow between the veins. Set plants 4 feet apart for a hedge, and keep them 3 feet from a wall, because the suckers spread outward.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch ring clear of the stems. The seed is dust-fine and needs light. It needs no chilling. Gather the capsules as they turn brown in late summer or early fall, dry them in a paper bag, and shake out the seed. Sow it in spring on the surface of moist mix, thinly and uncovered, and keep it damp under a clear lid.

Water weekly through the first summer unless the ground is already wet. Deer tend to pass it by, but rabbits and voles can cut young stems, so a wire guard for the first two winters is cheap insurance. It needs little pruning. Cut out dead stems in late winter, and pull suckers that wander past the bed.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, so a single plant sets seed. Butterflies and other pollinators work the spikes in June, and songbirds pick the seed from the capsules. Nothing serious troubles it. The one common complaint is a colony that spreads faster than wanted.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

Sources (10)