Itea virginica ‘Little Henry’

Itea virginica, the Virginia sweetspire, is a native shrub of eastern wetlands and streambanks, prized for arching, fragrant white flower spikes in early summer and a brilliant fall display of red, orange, and burgundy. 'Little Henry' is the dwarf of the clan, a low, mounded selection that reaches only about three feet, packing the fragrant flowers and fiery fall color of the full-sized sweetspires into a tidy, compact plant for smaller spaces.

This dwarf came from Richard Feist of Hummingbird Nursery in Kentucky, a compact, dense selection of the native species, sometimes called Virginia willow though the plant is no willow. Where the standard sweetspires spread into broad colonies, 'Little Henry' stays neat and rounded, well suited to a spot where space is limited but the sweetspire's virtues are still wanted.

The plant gives up nothing in the trade for size. Fragrant white spires cover the mound in early summer, drawing bees and butterflies, and in fall the small leaves turn a saturated red and burgundy, deciduous in most of the range and semi-evergreen in the Deep South. As with the larger sweetspires, the plant loves moisture and takes wet ground in stride.

Use 'Little Henry' at the front of a border, as a low massing, in a rain garden, along a path, or in a container, anywhere a compact native shrub with fragrant flowers and strong fall color is wanted. Give full sun to part shade and moist soil, and pair with other moisture-lovers or let a drift of the plant carry a slope. Bees and butterflies work the flowers; deer tend to pass the aromatic foliage by.