As you may or may not know, fall is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs with crapemyrtles being an exception since they like to be planted in the summer. But, if you have some space to add a tree or shrub to your landscape, here’s some interesting plants that might not be on your radar.

American Beautyberry

Beautyberry is a shrub that doesn’t seem to get the attention that it deserves. It can be a little bit of a sporadic grower, meaning that it’s probably not going to grow in the shrub-like shape you expect, but that’s a small price to pay for the color that they bring to your yard. First of all, it’s a native shrub, so we know it’s well adapted to our climate. Then, in mid-summer it produces these lavender colored flowers that you might just miss if you are not looking because they are so small. Later as fall approaches, the beautyberry produces clusters of small purple berries giving them a display you won’t find on other plants.

Beautyberry shrubs prefer some protection from the afternoon sun and in the right conditions can grow to between 5 and 10 feet in height. If this growth gets to be too much, you can cut them to the ground in the winter and then they will grow back in the spring.

Vitex

Next up would be the Vitex or Chaste tree. Vitex is a multi-stemmed shrub that can be pruned/trained up into a small tree. The vitex is a flowering tree whose flowers appear toward the beginning of summer but then then continue to bloom sporadically through the summer and fall. Their flowers can be blue, lavender, pink, or white. Some of the old varieties had fairly small flower spikes, but newer varieties have larger flower spikes growing to between 8 and 12 inches long. The flowers are colorful and fragrant which make them a good choice to bring inside for cut flowers. This shrub is not picky about where it’s planted and is very drought and heat tolerant. When blooming, they will also be covered in butterflies and hummingbirds.

Virginia Sweetspire aka Little Henry

This one is another native shrub found in eastern Oklahoma. It grows into a gently shaped mound rising to between 3 and 6 feet in height and width. In the spring and early summer, sweetspire will produce small, white, fragrant flowers in 4-inch spires that kind of droop from arching branches. Their blooms begin at the base of the spire and move up to the tip making it appear they have a longer bloom time.

They are not picky about where they are planted and tend to do well in swampy areas or along streams. They will grow well as an understory plant or in a shady area but will have better blooms if they have at least a half day of full sun. They can look a little scraggly if grown alone so for best appearance, plant them in groups. Good luck!

You can get answers to all your gardening questions by calling the Tulsa Master Gardeners Help Line at 918-746-3701, dropping by our Diagnostic Center at 4116 E. 15th Street, or by emailing us at mg@tulsamastergardeners.org. Photo: Carl Dennis, Auburn University, Bugwood.org