Lakeshore Garden Centres Plant Finder

Other Names:  Chastetree

Group/Class:  Season to Season Collection

Brand:  J. Berry Nursery

Description:

A well branched hybrid selection, presenting graceful spikes of purple-blue flowers that bloom mid-summer to fall; distinctive dark green palmate leaves have gray-green undersides; likes full sun and is very easy to grow; may be shaped into a small tree

Ornamental Features

Season to Season® Busy Bee™ Chaste Tree features showy panicles of fragrant purple flowers with blue overtones rising above the foliage from mid summer to mid fall. Its attractive small fragrant palmate leaves remain forest green in colour with curious grayish green undersides throughout the season. However, the fruit can be messy in the landscape and may require occasional clean-up.

Landscape Attributes

Season to Season® Busy Bee™ Chaste Tree is an open multi-stemmed perennial with a shapely form and gracefully arching foliage. Its medium texture blends into the garden, but can always be balanced by a couple of finer or coarser plants for an effective composition.

This plant will require occasional maintenance and upkeep. Trim off the flower heads after they fade and die to encourage more blooms late into the season. It is a good choice for attracting bees, butterflies and hummingbirds to your yard, but is not particularly attractive to deer who tend to leave it alone in favor of tastier treats. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Season to Season® Busy Bee™ Chaste Tree is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Mass Planting
• Hedges/Screening
• General Garden Use
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Season to Season® Busy Bee™ Chaste Tree will grow to be about 6 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 5 feet. It has a low canopy with a typical clearance of 1 foot from the ground. Although it is technically a woody plant, this slow-growing plant can be expected to behave as a perennial in our climate if planted outdoors over the winter, usually regrowing from its base (crown) the following year. As such, gardeners should take into consideration that it will perform differently than it would in its native habitat.

This plant does best in full sun to partial shade. It is very adaptable to both dry and moist locations, and should do just fine under typical garden conditions. It is considered to be drought-tolerant, and thus makes an ideal choice for a low-water garden or xeriscape application. To help this plant achive its best flowering performance, periodically apply a flower-boosting fertilizer from early spring through into the active growing season. It is not particular as to soil type or pH, and is able to handle environmental salt. It is highly tolerant of urban pollution and will even thrive in inner city environments, and will benefit from being planted in a relatively sheltered location. This particular variety is an interspecific hybrid.

Season to Season® Busy Bee™ Chaste Tree is a fine choice for the garden, but it is also a good selection for planting in outdoor pots and containers. Because of its height, it is often used as a 'thriller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the center of the pot, surrounded by smaller plants and those that spill over the edges. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden. Be aware that in our climate, most plants cannot be expected to survive the winter if left in containers outdoors, and this plant is no exception. Contact our experts for more information on how to protect it over the winter months.

This plant is not reliably hardy in our region, and certain restrictions may apply; contact the store for more information.