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Resources < Wildlife Habitats < Native Plants < Native Plant Database < Itea virginica
Virginia sweetspire is a tough, long-lived, trouble-free plant offering sweet-smelling white blooms in late spring and showy red and purple fall color. The flowers appear in May and June and are really quite striking and unusual, borne in long racemes that resemble fat pipe cleaners or large fluffy white caterpillars. They are effective for about six weeks. Once the flowers fade, Virginia sweetspire spends the rest of the summer looking rather inconspicuous. Then fall comes and the leaves turn the color of wine—an eye-catching array of deep purples and rich reds. If the weather is mild, the colorful leaves may persist all winter long.
Virginia sweetspire is a very adaptable plant. It can grow in nearly any kind of soil—acidic to alkaline, fertile to not so fertile—and though it’s usually found in wet spots in the wild, it does just fine in average garden soil. Virginia sweetspire thrives in sun or shade. In full sun it tends to be dense, symmetrical, and free flowering. In deep shade it is more loosely shaped and leggy, and flowers tend to be sparser. Be sure to postpone any pruning until immediately after the bloom season since flowers are produced on old wood.
Saxifragaceae (Saxifrage Family)
Medium-sized deciduous, semi-evergreen, or evergreen shrub with medium green, oblong leaves. 3-to-6" spikes of fragrant white flowers appear in May and June. Small, tan, dry seed capsules are available in fall. Fall leaf color is showy purplish red to red.
4 to 5’ high; usually wider than high.
Medium-sized, thicket-forming shrub with long, arching branches. Plants tend to have an open, leggy form in shade and a denser, more rounded habit in full sun.
Medium.
Full sun to full shade. Best flowering occurs in full sun.
Planting and Care: Plants prefer moist, rich, slightly acid soils but are highly adaptable, performing well in neutral to alkaline soils and soils of average fertility. Though plants are usually found in wet areas in the wild, this species is surprisingly drought tolerant.
Attributes include fragrant white flowers in late spring and summer and red to reddish purple fall color. In mild winters the foliage often persists until spring.
Plant in masses, in the shrub border, as a specimen, or as part of an informal hedge. Provides excellent erosion control along stream banks.
Fruits are eaten by songbirds. Flowers provide nectar for butterflies.
Found in wooded swamps and along streams, riverbanks, and creek sides in the Piedmont and Coastal Plain.
Seed (no stratification), softwood cuttings, division of suckering plants.
Text and photo by Leslie Kimel
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Virginia Sweetspire
