Itea Species, Virginia Sweetspire, Virginia Willow, Gooseberry, Tassel-White

I don't see the straight mother species planted too much, as several cultivars are planted a lot in southeast PA. The straight species ha...Read Mores shorter flower spikes than most of the the cultivars. It is a handsome plant with good foliage that turns a good fall color from yellow to red. It has smooth, shiny, purplish stems. It is a clean plant that is informal in being a whole bunch of individual stems coming up out of the ground. It does sucker a lot in draining wet or really moist soils. It is easy to prune and to propagate from suckers. It likes acid soils up to about pH of 7, but I am not sure where the breaking point is for too much alkaline.

I have not grown this plant. It is native to Alabama, Arkansas, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana,...Read More Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

This is one of the very few shrubs that will bloom in the shade. Its flowers are nice in bouquets too. Ours is growing along the NE side...Read More of the house and it has filled in its space very well. Pinching helps it to branch and fill in better. It does send up suckers from the roots.

Listed as a good shrub to use for fall/winter color for Florida gardeners. Native to most of the state even the southern counties.
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Grows from 3 to 7 feet tall. Fragrant flowers late spring.

There are quite a few cultivars of this species. It's usually referred to as Sweetspire. Too bad you have to drive to North Caroline to buy it though.