My Vitex isn't even thinking about leafing out yet, Lisa. Give it some more time - it's notoriously slow in spring, but well worth the wait.

I'm glad to hear that, dtd. I'll keep an eye out and post if it shows any sign of life!

Lisa

Mine has never wake up before late May- early June.
Should be planted somewhere where it not will be sore eye at this time of the year.

isn't vitex like a sub-shrub that gets cut down each spring?

Lisa, I'll keep my fingers crossed!! Please do not feel badly if it didn't make it. The poor thing had been in a pot way too long and I didn't exactly nurture it through the summer. I bought it in the spring down in SC and then just didn't have the heart to plant it knowing it probably wouldn't survive for me. It was wishful thinking followed by guilt!

Is that the Cornus controversa variegata you had reserved last year? I am so excited about your getting that tree!! Outstanding! I surely have zone envy over that one!! If you host the swap in the fall I'll be sure to drool all over it! LOL!!

>isn't vitex like a sub-shrub that gets cut down each spring?

Mine's about 8' tall and almost as wide, so, no, I wouldn't consider it a subshrub. LOL. It's possible that it's grown as a perennial in places where it's not fully hardy, although I don't know if it blooms on new wood. Mine may have once died to the ground, and I know a friend's did that a few years ago.

Mine is single-trunked, or it may have 2 or 3 main trunks, actually; I'd go look if I wasn't already soaked through from potting up divisions in the rain.

Yes, it blooms on a new wood.
Vitex could be pruned heavily in a spring for a better flowering and size restriction. I prune mine by 1/3 every year.
However this is absolutely not necessary for the over all health of the shrub.

Well I couldn't believe it. Yesterday I found three tiny shoots coming up from the very base of the vitex tree. There isn't a bit of bud on the old wood, but it is officially 'not dead yet'. I am very excited. I would love to hear from you experts. If it is starting over from ground zero, how tall can I expect it to get. Should cut down the old wood? If so, when?

I'm so excited to see it coming back!

Lisa

Thank you for this thread - I've been eavesdropping since it was started!
I received a vitex seedling from our friend Dawiff before she moved.
I'd been watching it sure that it didn't survive the winter but then I saw this thread and decided to wait and watch as you recommended.

Sure enough - it LIVES!

Mine has just started leafing out, up along the branches. I see some new growth at the base as well. I'm planning to remove the shoots at the base, since mine's a multi-stemmed tree, with enough stems already. Since you guys are in colder zones, you're probably not planning on anything like that, but I just thought I'd chime in again - it seems awfully late for these guys to be starting to leaf out, but I probably say that every year.

Hi Lisa, based on what DTD has said about how late these are, I think I would hold out before cutting anything back and then treat it almost like cutting back a butterfly bush. Maybe some growth will finally show up along the branches? In Dirr's book he says to "use as a herbaceous perennial in Boston, a large shrub in Baltimore or a small tree in Atlanta." I thought maybe they'd be more shrub-like in your area as opposed to herbaceous perennial? I'll keep my fingers crossed! I'm curious to see how it all works out.

I'm so excited to see real shoots. Since it basically died to the ground, how tall will it be at bloom time do you think? I might have put it too far back in the border to be seen.

LIsa

Lisa,
As others have suggested I wouldn't access your Vitex on its' first years performance. Perhaps the combination of those couple days of extreme cold and extreme warm last winter as well as your shrubs lack of root system has caused it to die all the way back. I think this shrub will be a real test to your patience as a gardener.