What tree (with purple blossoms) is this? (Houston, Katy: rental, townhouse)

[madrone2k]

Does the Vitex have a nice scent? It certainly is beautiful in the pics.

On Ligustrum, I am so tired of it ... it seems to be the default choice by developers in Houston for cheap landscaping. As a kid, I saw a lot of it that was cultivated as a hedge in appropriate places and grew quite tall, with flowers having a reasonably nice fragrance which attracted lots of honeybees. (IIRC, in England they call it Privet.) Now, however, there is so much of it around planted in the wrong places (like parking lots where it has to be butchered back) and often is actually rather ugly.

Texas Mountain Laurel is another blooming shrub I like.

[riaelise]

Hey what's wrong with ligustrum? Hardy, pretty green waxy leaves, holds up to TX heat. In fact, I think I'm going to remove the useless yaupon hollies and replace with ligustrum to get the hedge I desire.

Vitex does attract a lot of bees though and you need to deadhead in order to get another flush of flowers.

[madrone2k]

Ligustrum can be nice if its planted in the right kind of place and is well-cared for. I just think that it looks sad when planted in some commercial areas where that does not hold. I have a lot of pleasant childhood memories of ligustrum planted where it thrived. And ... catching honeybees there, which was fun for a kid, but not good for the bees nor the environment, as I now know.

[SanJac]

The Vitex "Montrose Purple" variety is stunning if you can find it. Probably the most beautiful flowering tree I've seen...

[Idlewile]

Originally Posted by SanJac

The Vitex "Montrose Purple" variety is stunning if you can find it. Probably the most beautiful flowering tree I've seen...

Another beautiful purple flowering tree that is zoned to TX although I don't remember seeing too many of them is the Royal Empress Tree. It's fast growing and the blossoms are so lush they look like wisteria blossoms, just upside down. It's a show-stopper. After blooming, it's has fun, BIG green leaves.

https://www.google.com/search?tbm=is....0.2z0Pbk2TXRY

[cBach]

Originally Posted by riaelise

Hey what's wrong with ligustrum? Hardy, pretty green waxy leaves, holds up to TX heat. In fact, I think I'm going to remove the useless yaupon hollies and replace with ligustrum to get the hedge I desire.

Vitex does attract a lot of bees though and you need to deadhead in order to get another flush of flowers.

I'll tell you, I really hate ligustrum. It's mainly the rate of growth. If you have a noisy neighbor behind you, it's a perfect hedge as it will grow to like 15 feet tall if you let it. It will grow 10 feet thick as well if you let it.

In front of a house as a hedge however, it is HORRIBLE. You have to cut it multiple times a year and most people don't realize that hedges should NEVER go above the window. It's a fire safety issue, it's a home safety issue, and it's an insect prevention issue.

What happens when you have the hedge around for 20 years is the hedge has so thick trunks and then you have a light layer of leaves on top, it doesn't look like a hedge anymore, it looks like a tree that's been decapitated.

I think boxwoods are so much better for hedges. They grow slowly, are easy to trim, and always look perfectly symmetrical.

boxwoods > ligustrum for home rubbing hedges
ligustrum > boxwoods for fence hedges far from the house

I'm also a fan of evergreen cedar like trees for landscaping. If you drive around the Hill Country, you can see that juniper ashe does extremely well here. Some of its cousins have nice properties like bushiness, slow rate of growth, hardiness, that are good for "close to house" planting. Italian Cypress are great for accenting tall walls and are skinny so you never really have to prune, just let it grow tall. It just seems the builders really have no clue how to landscape so I've had to gradually redo my whole yard. It's taken years but it's worth it.

[ScoPro]

Yeah, Ligustrum is a PITA to keep trimmed properly, but I like my hedge all around the back yard. It's much preferable to look at the green instead of the wood fence & neighbors.





Then there is the next door neighbor who let his Red Tip Photinias grow up all the way to screen out the two story house behind us....

[cBach]

Originally Posted by Idlewile

Another beautiful purple flowering tree that is zoned to TX although I don't remember seeing too many of them is the Royal Empress Tree. It's fast growing and the blossoms are so lush they look like wisteria blossoms, just upside down. It's a show-stopper. After blooming, it's has fun, BIG green leaves.

https://www.google.com/search?tbm=is....0.2z0Pbk2TXRY

DO NOT plant the Royal Empress tree. The Lady Bird Wildflower center recommends against it. It is poisonous to animals such as dogs and is non-native to Texas:

https://www.wildflower.org/expert/show.php?id=3807

The first thing we want to do is urge you NOT to plant the Royal Empress tree, for reasons you will learn from this Plant Conservation Alliance Alien Working Group website on Paulownia tomentosa. It is a native of western and central China, and can quickly become invasive, crowding out or destroying more desirable native plants. As in the case in other fast-growing trees, it is a weak tree and not long-lived. At the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, we recommend only plants native not only to North America but to the area in which the plants are being grown. Plants native to an area will be adapted to the climate, rainfall and soils, and require less fertilizer, water and maintenance.

[cBach]

Originally Posted by ScoPro

Yeah, Ligustrum is a PITA to keep trimmed properly, but I like my hedge all around the back yard. It's much preferable to look at the green instead of the wood fence & neighbors.





Then there is the next door neighbor who let his Red Tip Photinias grow up all the way to screen out the two story house behind us....

Yeah like I said, it's a good neighbor fence but not for a hedge in front of the house.

[riaelise]

I'd be using the ligustrum for the back fence. The yaupon hollies are too leggy/twiggy and not dense enough for my liking. Sounds like the ligustrum would be the solution to my problem. We have a variegated privet that serves as a screen and it does a great job. I really dont care for boxwoods, they're disease prone and grow too slow. I guess I would like for an established hedge but to start a hedge, boxwood is too small and demands lots of sun.

Italian Cypress - have two of those and they're prone to mites. Have yet to see a cypress that doesn't have some mite damage. Not really a tree I'd plant as there's nothing about it that's noteworthy (to me).