Photo by Jess Cole
Sweetspire
Itea is an incredible native shrub that can be found at your local nursery. Its form is unique as it suckers, and, when given free range, creates large colonies. Itea grows up to eight feet tall and shoots spindly new growth up and out over time. I use it in residential plantscapes as a specimen, and also as a large ground cover of sorts. In spring, itea produces precious, creamy white bloom spikes that pollinators go wild over. Its deciduous nature lends striking fall color, and I have had equal success with it in shade and full sun. By nature it loves water, yet once established I have seen it do just fine without supplemental water. I came to understand this plant after spending time with it in the Pearl River watershed, where you find itea growing in insanely large masses at the water’s edge in tupelo forests. Itea puts me in mind of the aspen tree, which famously shares a common root system that enables large groves to function as a single, interconnected organism. What might look like a forest of aspen, or itea, might in fact be one huge specimen, sharing resources to expand its verdant blanket across the landscape.
