When was this picture taken?

You do know that this is a deciduous plant, that goes bare for the winter, right?

If that picture is recent, the plant looks fine and as expected for a new plant at the end of the growing season. I see nothing that looks "dead" at all.

I do have some concerns about your watering regime, however. Daily watering would generally be considered excessive but leaving the hose on for only a minute or less could mitigate that and depending on your soil, may not be enough water. The recommendation for new plants is once or twice a week (weather dependent) but long enough that the water percolates fully through the root zone.....so infrequently but deeply and thoroughly.

Actually newly planted stock, that has not rooted out well yet may often need to be watered during dry weather nearly as often as if it was still sitting out of the ground, in a pot.

Carl E Whitcomb article on Vitex:

http://www.drcarlwhitcomb.com/uploads/VitexE.pdf

Take your nail and scrape the bark of the branch. If it is green you and it are fine. I would deep water it twice a week until nite temps go down to dew point. The Vitex are very hardy. Make sure there is no air pockets around root ball. Take a thin stick of wood or metal and push around ball and see if it packed with soil. If not try watering in some soil til packed up. When spring comes, try watering for 4-7 min twice a week. More deep saturation is desired. Good luck.

It was planted 8 months ago!! There is no way the shrub should require daily waterings at this stage of the game!

it was taken today here is another picture of some other leaves. Ok, so I've gathered that I am watering it too much? Or maybe because it's getting colder? I am not sure how these trees look in the winter. Do all the leaves fall off?

Yes, they loose all leaves. Check the stems as I mentioned to see if the plant is still alive. I worry you didn’t water deep enough. Better to deep water than 1 min a day. That might have promoted roots to rise to surface and might make them vulnerable. I would deep water now and then mulch really well for winter protection. A cold winter is predicted everywhere. Good luck. I like this bush and i am hoping you can save it. Trim in spring after blooming to keep shape compact and set blooming for next season.

where are you ....

as noted.. its deciduous ... goes bare for winter ... leaves start shutting down.. as the sun goes in to decline ... and when they do.. they get ugly ... its natures way ....

take a small hand shovel.. trowel.. and dig a couple holes 3 to 6 inches deep ... AND FIND OUT IF THERE IS MOISTURE DOWN IN THE ROOT AREA ... if there is.. why water ??? ... key word.. moisture.. not bog like standing water ...

it hard for any of us.. to tell you how much water is needed in the soil on your property ... ergo.. you need to find out and learn ...

in fall.. as days cool.. and nights get cold.. there simply isnt the heat to pull water out of the soil ... from root depth .. as such much less watering is needed ... but if you check.. you find out ...

your base issue.. is that you are guessing.. and it is bothering you.. not to know ... so go find out ...

ken

How much water needed and how often to do it is dependent on how often this particular specimen needs it on this particular site. And will vary with the weather. If it was planted out of a container full of coarse potting soil into a much finer textured natural soil - as is often the case - the soil around the original root mass could perfectly well be attracting water out of the potting soil to produce a state of chronic dryness even 8 months later.

However an automatically undertaken minute a day would not be the way to deal with this. Instead you should poke around in the potting soil each time you are wondering if your shrub needs to be watered and see for yourself how damp or dry it may be at that time. And learn thereby how often you need to water it and how much water needs to be put on to get the entire column of potting soil wet.

In your last shot the lawn looks mostly dried out and too close to the vitex. As though the site is on the dry side at this time, with the shrub having been planted in a minimally sized opening dug out of the lawn. And given a too small area of mulch after planting - or not mulched at all.

Instead a grass free area at least 3 ft.. across should be established, mulched well with some kind of effective and lasting material like wood chips. Covering the soil near the tree with a shading material like this should help a lot with moisture management. Particularly if in fact the issue here has been chronic dryness, with the probably too light and frequent watering actually not having met the plant's moisture needs.

By the way I have two of these planted in the ground here in my comparatively cool and dull part of USDA 8, on two different parts of my 0.6 acre property. I have found both of them to be thirsty during summer conditions. Plants of other kinds right around them will still be firm and these will be starting to flag,

Interesting, as virtually all sites tout this shrub for its extreme drought tolerance..........

True AFTER it gets established.

Yes, I didn't expect the drought susceptibility. Of course, there could be the aforementioned problem with textural difference between the potting medium they came in and the surrounding soil. This goes on until a specimen planted with an intact potting soil root-ball is fully rooted into the soil around it. If there is enough of a problem from the start good rooting out may be delayed. Or the specimen may even dwindle away without ever having taken hold well - I have had this happen more than once with material installed with intact field soil root-balls. Years go by, the thing never takes off - instead starts to die back - and when exhumed turns out to be sitting in a blob of dust, with very little root growth out of the ball.

Ok, thank you all. I am located in Beaufort, SC and this might just be the weather changing. I might just be too worried for nothing. I scratched a branch and it was bright green, so it's not dead. I will put mulch where I planted the tree and continue watering as I was. It is getting pretty cold at night, but the col nights only started a week ago and this tree started doing this about 2-3 weeks ago. That's why I was worried.

Again what watering is needed in this particular instance, at any given time needs to be determined by a visual inspection of the original root mass. A lot can be told by poking around in the top of it, without uncovering the rest.