White flower spikes from sweetspire plants
Bee feeding on the nectar of white flower spikes from sweetspire plants
White flower spikes from sweetspire plants
Close up image of beautiful fall foliage from a sweetspire plant
White flower spikes from sweetspire planted in a clay pot
Proven Winners ColorChoice Shrubs logo
1/6
White flower spikes from sweetspire plants
Bee feeding on the nectar of white flower spikes from sweetspire plants
White flower spikes from sweetspire plants
Close up image of beautiful fall foliage from a sweetspire plant
White flower spikes from sweetspire planted in a clay pot
Proven Winners ColorChoice Shrubs logo
All media depicts mature plants.

Fizzy Mizzy™ Sweetspire (Itea)

Shrub

  • Enjoy tons of bright white flower spikes in early summer.
  • Its fragrant blooms attract pollinators!
  • Compact, shade tolerant & deer-resistant.
  • Award-winning shrub developed by Proven Winners ColorChoice Flowering Shrubs.
  • Zones 5-9, sun/part sun/shade, 3' tall x 3' wide at maturity.
  • ZONE
  • EXPOSURE
  • HEIGHT

More info on plant sizes

Size: One Quart
$33.00
Sale: $33.00 Each
Total: $33.00
Shipping calculated at checkout.
Hand-Picked at Our Greenhouse
Shipped to Your Door
Arrives as a Young Plant
60 Day Risk-Free Guarantee
Hand-Picked at Our Greenhouse
Shipped to Your Door
Arrives as a Young Plant
60 Day Risk-Free Guarantee
Hand-Picked at Our Greenhouse
Shipped to Your Door
Arrives as a Young Plant
60 Day Risk-Free Guarantee
Hand-Picked at Our Greenhouse
Shipped to Your Door
Arrives as a Young Plant
60 Day Risk-Free Guarantee
Hand-Picked at Our Greenhouse
Shipped to Your Door
Arrives as a Young Plant
60 Day Risk-Free Guarantee
Hand-Picked at Our Greenhouse
Shipped to Your Door
Arrives as a Young Plant
60 Day Risk-Free Guarantee

Description

Fizzy Mizzy™ Sweetspire (Itea virginica) is the perfect plant to add bright and cheery blooms to your garden, no matter its size! This flowerific shrub is compact and perfect for nearly any sized landscape, it's incredibly versatile. You have a lot to look forward to when you add Fizzy Mizzy™ to your landscape. From its bright white flower spikes to its sweet fragrance, both you and pollinators will be coming back for more! This sweetspire is incredibly shade tolerant, so if you have a shady spot that needs some attention, try planting Fizzy Mizzy™ there, but do note that best flowering happens in full sun.

Details

Botanical name: Itea virginica 'SMNIVMM'
Patent #: PP 33,549
Common name: Sweetspire, Virginia sweetspire, Itea
Zone: 5-9
Sun exposure: Full sun (6+ hours sun) to part-sun (4-6 hours sun). Can take full shade, but flowering and fall color will be diminished.
Height x width: 2-3′ tall and wide
Flower color: White
Foliage color: Green
Season of Interest: Early summer to autumn
Bloom time: Summer
Features: Rare & unusual, Proven Winners, low flammability, heat tolerant, fragrant
Uses: Hedge, native plant gardens, wildlife gardens, ground cover.

How to Grow

Soil: Moist but well-drained soils are best. Established sweetspire can take some dryness.
Light: Full sun (6+ hrs/day) to part-sun (4-6 hrs/day). Can grow in full shade, but flowering will be diminished, and fall color will not be as vivid.
Water: Average.
Space: Plant at least 3′ apart.
Fertilizing: Little needed. If desired, fertilize in early spring, once the ground has thawed, with a granular rose fertilizer. A second application may be made in late spring/early summer as well.
Winterizing: Nothing special required, aside from a good 2-3″ layer of mulch. Mulch is especially important in zones 5 and 6.
Maintenance & Pruning: Blooms on old wood, so should only be pruned after bloom. Dead wood can be removed in spring, once new growth has begun to emerge and it’s clear where any dieback may have occurred.

6 Fragrant Flowers for Spring

Lots of the most beloved fragrant plants bloom in spring and early summer; they’re the perfect way to welcome back the growing season and the return of spending time outdoors. We’re sharing some of our all-time favorite fragrant plants in spring here. Plant them and create your own fragrant memories this season!

Get inspired

Plant spacing is based on the ultimate width of the plants. This figure is normally given as a range; for example, 3-5’. If you live in a cold climate and/or want plants to fill in more quickly, plan to space at the shorter end of the range. If you live in a warm climate, are on a limited budget, or are willing to wait longer for plants to touch, use the higher end of the range. Using the larger number is recommended when calculating distance from a building or structure. There’s really no such thing as "maximum spacing": if you don’t want your plants to touch, you can space them as far apart as you’d like. All plant spacing is calculated on center, or in other words, the centers of the plants are spaced one half of their eventual width apart:

bush distance

Unless you are planting in a straight line, as you might for hedges or edging, space your plants in a staggered or zig-zag pattern for a more interesting and naturalistic look:

bush distance zigzag

Not sure just how many plants will fit in your garden? Our calculator gives you the exact amount of plants required for your space. Simply update the values and the calculator will re-calculate accordingly. Spacing information can be found in the 'How to Grow' tab on each plant's page.

Plant Spacing Calculator

ft
ft
in
Plants Needed
—
Enter your dimensions above
Grid preview will appear here showing preview
  • 5 stars: 4 (57%)
  • 4 stars: 2 (29%)
  • 3 stars: 0 (0%)
  • 2 stars: 1 (14%)
  • 1 star: 0 (0%)
M
M.S.

All plants were healthy and have taken well to their new places

M
M.O. (New Jersey)
Revived and doing well

Ordered this sweetspire, and a male and female winterberry holly. All arrived looking great with new growth. A frost killed all of the new growth. But knowing there was hardwood, I kept them watered and all 3 plants are now shooting new growth. Won't be much to look at this year, but they are now doing well. If you want instant impact, these plants are too small. Be patient.

m
m. (Kentucky)
They died during winter

I ordered 2 plants and planted each in a a 2 gallon container. They did fine during the fall. But they never came out in the spring.

Hello! We're sorry you're having trouble with your plants. Please email [email protected] with your order number for further assistance. All orders are covered by our 60-day guarantee!

M
M.M. (North Carolina)

Plants are small but thriving, growing new leaves within 2 weeks of planting.

We’re sorry you’re not satisfied with your plants! On each product page and our plant sizes page, we note that all of our plants are young. The size of our plants varies depending on the time of year and whether they were recently trimmed. The most important thing when purchasing plants, online or in garden centers, is a full and robust root system, which we prioritize. Trimming only encourages stronger root development! All orders are covered by our 60-day guarantee, so please reach out to [email protected] to start the claims process if necessary.

A
A.M.I. (Massachusetts)

It’s looking good and going strong from the moment I put it in the ground.

J
J.L. (Virginia)
Sweetspire

Came beautifully packaged and a perfect little specimen of a plant! Planted it where it gets sun and will grow to scent the back deck for years to come. Hasn't shown any stress from transplanting, and even with slightly irregular watering! Deer and rabbits haven't touched it either! Hope it continues to thrive. Thank you for taking such great care in packaging and shipping it to me!

D
D.P. (Georgia)
Nice little plant

I ordered a Fizzy Mizzy last year to try it out in my Garden. It is a cute little plant and did very well the first year. So I ordered another one and I received another very big healthy plant for being in a quart pot. I immediately potted it up to a gallon size to grow on. It responded with lots more growth and is filling out its new pot. I plan to put it in the landscape later this fall. Thank you

M
M.M.

Can Sweetspire be planted in a container and will it overwinter? Living in central Pennsylvania? Thank you.

Great Garden Plants

Plants are generally winter hardy in containers as long as they are two zones hardier than the zone you live in. For more information about overwintering container plants, check out our blog:

https://blog.greatgardenplants.com/5-easy-tips-for-protecting-your-potted-plants-this-winter/

C
C.

What size pot does it come in?

Great Garden Plants

Thank you for contacting us! We carry a variety of sizes. Most of our perennials are grown in a 1 quart container, which is a 4" x 4" pot. Some of our evergreen trees and shrubs are grown in a one gallon container, which is 6" round pot. The sizes are listed on the individual plant pages. As we are strictly an online nursery and ship the plants to all the lower 48 states, we have found that the gallon size is the largest to ship.

The size of the plant itself varies, depending on the variety and the time of year.

Included below is our plant size page:
https://www.greatgardenplants.com/pages/sizes

L
L.

How does this compare to your other Sweetspires like Little Henry? What is different about this one?

Great Garden Plants

Fizzy Mizzy and Little Henry are different varieties of the same plant so they share a lot of the same qualities. Both varieties grow to 3 feet around and have fragrant white flowers that will attract pollinators. You can't go wrong with Sweetspire no matter what variety you choose!