Delta Blues™ Chaste Tree

You won’t be singing the blues when you grow the Delta Blues™ Chaste Tree – it will be hallelujah in your garden when you see how tough and heat resistant this shrub is, and how great it looks, bringing summer blooms to hot, dry gardens, including sea-side gardens and the hottest places in the country. The original chaste tree is too large for all but the largest garden, but this variety is more compact, growing just 8 to 10 feet tall and wide – ideal for the back of borders, around your house, and as a great windbreak along the shore. In cooler zones it will be shorter, and the summer blooming is especially valuable, as that is the time when many of our common shrubs have finished. With gray-green foliage that smells of sage or pepper when crushed, it looks great in spring. The 4-inch flower spikes begin to appear in June and continue right into September. Packed with tiny blooms, their rich purple-blue coloring is a great addition to the summer, bright and cooling at the same time. Easy to grow and super-tough, you will wonder, once you grow it, where this terrific plant has been hiding.

• Handsome gray-green foliage is fragrant of herbs
• Tall spikes of purple-blue flowers from June to September
• Attracts pollinators and butterflies
• Super-tough for hot, dry regions
• Great in dry soil and in coastal gardens

Grow the Delta Blues™ Chaste Tree in full sun, in any well-drained soil. It grows well even in poor, dry soils, sands, rocky ground and at the seashore. This plant has good tolerance of salt-spray, from highways or at the beach. Water new plants regularly, but once established it is very drought tolerant. When planting in areas with limited access to water, fall planting is recommended, as it will establish good roots over the winter. Fully hardy to zone 7, it can also be grown in sheltered, sunny spots in zones 5 and 6, where flowering might be delayed until late summer. Deer don’t eat it and it’s resistant to the most common diseases. Prune lightly after flowering and don’t trim new spring growth. It can also be trained up into a small tree-form by removing lower branches, and even trained on a wall as an espalier.