Itea chinensis Check with George or in a large pot

or in a large pot elsewhere

whose decades of selection gave gardeners the banded

and the variegation stays put rather than reverting to plain green

on wood formed the year before

at a time when European gardeners knew only the round mopheads

Itea chinensis Check with George or in a large potItea, the sweetspires, are graceful shrubs of the family Iteaceae, their name taken from the Greek word for willow, after leaves that recall a willow's. Itea chinensis is the Chinese sweetspire, an uncommon evergreen member of the group, a medium to tall shrub of neat, compact form with oval, glossy leaves that hold through the year in the warm South. In spring the plant hangs slender four inch spikes of small white flowers, softly fragrant and busy