I'm so sorry that you may have lost your vitex tree. My four, two purple, one pink, and one white, are leafing out in San Antonio. Our official low was 9 degrees, but in my yard being in a valley the temps are usually lower. We had a 107 hour stretch of freezing temps. You are wise in waiting a bit before giving up on it recovering from the roots. Plants were so shocked they are slower than usual in recovering. Keep us posted.

All of mine re leafing out now. one purple, one pink and 2/really small purples that were babies of my purple. The purple is probably a 12 to 15 footer now,

I have 2 that are about 15' that are budding on all branches, three weeks later than usual. I don't see any damage though.

I've had mine about 4 yrs in San antonio and the freeze didn't bother it . I see a bunch of seeds on it but I didnt get to see it bloom . I think the freeze messed up the flowers cause it usually blooms its head off.

D/FW here ... Mine is much more sparse than usual for this time of year, but I’m just happy it’s alive.

The bigger pot back there holds an Esperanza, which was in my unheated garage during that awful winter. It’s just now getting some leaves ... I’m shocked it survived.

Bee on my Vitex last year:

I saw a tree up close at a office that I go to and it was JUST starting to do tiny leaves. I went up close to see if it was dead and I had to get real close before I saw the growth. We were just a tad warmer than y'all.

I just love vitex!

As Mr. Grant famously said on the Mary Tyler Moore show, they've got spunk!

I started one from a cutting about eight years ago, and it is now as tall as the house.

When I had to have some dangerous trees removed last summer,

big chunks of one of them fell right into the crown of this tree.

Then the blizzard hit.

Still looks pitiful, but it's bravely leafing out.

And then there is its child,

A seedling or sapling, that was about 6 feet tall.

It looks like the tree guys lopped half of it off or dragged some limbs across it and shredded the top.

It is now about 4 feet tall.

it has a few tiny little leaves on the original stem or trunk, & it has clusters of them at the base.

I love Vitex too. They say it is an invasive. I do not see many seedlings of it in the wild but It does live and thrive on no soil on limestone and caliche. I can only imagine what it would do in friendlier digs. I love it because it does thrive.

I too love Vitex. We have 5 in our DFW backyard, and they're all leafed out now, but I wasn't too sure about them a little over two weeks ago. They seemed a bit stunted, with some tiny buds, but then they just sort of went "boom!" once it got just a bit warmer. I'm so eager for their flowers to arrive. They smell divine. Such pretty little trees!

When we lived down in Texas City years ago, I was given a Vitex seedling by a co-worker. She said hers dropped seedlings everywhere and she was always having to dig them up to give away or discard. The plant was 1' tall when she gave it to me. It was probably 15' tall by the time we sold that house, well above the 6' decorative fence piece it was planted in front of. It bloomed prolifically every year after the first. Never once did it drop a seedling underneath it that I can recall. As I, too, always heard they are invasive, I have always wondered if some are indeed invasive but some are NOT. Perhaps there are male and female Vitex? Or perhaps just some Vitex cultivars in the species are invasive?

The Vitex tree already planted by the former owner in my current yard has never dropped a seedling either in the 5 years we've lived here. It's in a large bed that is never mowed or weed-whacked, so I'd sure see them if it were creating babies.

I have seen a few vita trees in the wild but not many and they were all very close to older neighborhoods where excess fertilizer good soil and plenty of water alter the soil. Not like chinaberry and Mimosa trees.

I’ve always wondered about this, too. We do a lot of hiking all over the state and I’ve never seen one. None of mine have ever spread whatsoever. Every street I’ve ever lived on, everyone had them, no spreading into other yards.

Mine shoot up new branches from the roots like crazy, but they don't spread beyond the tree.

I think Vitex generally spreads from seeds getting carried away by rainwater...which travels through ditches and into rivers. I've seen 1 in the wild in a drainage ditch and several in flat riverbanks where the water overflows in heavy rains. Probably what happens is seeds floating downstream get deposited and left there after heavy rains. And then once they take root there, they can spread quite easily along the riverbanks.

This is where they've become most invasive because I think rainwater is their main vector, not birds (since their seeds aren't in edible berries).

That makes sense, @blakrab Centex.

Vitex finally has leaves! An Arizona Ash was killed by the freeze, but I've been tempted to kill it myself anyway, so good!

Here's a huge one I found recently...growing right down by the creek of course!

I'm pretty sure this one wasn't planted intentionally...but probably by the stormwater mechanism I had described above.

And you can also see how it just completely obliterates and takes over the riverbank. So, as these continue to spread along our waterways...they can definitely become as problematic as Arundo donax...