Understood about deer eating anything if hungry enough, but before planting some of these though wanted to make sure they're not like catnip to cats such as it is with cherry trees, tulips and roses (from my experience). I've given up on cherry trees, tulips and roses on most places of my property due to deer treating them like a buffet line!

Virginia Sweetspire aka itea virginica aka clethra I want to point out that clethra is not Virginia sweetspire. Itea is Virginia sweetspire. Yes, it can be a pretty fast grower and I'd said it depends on your soil conditions. If it is in a moist spot, it will grow faster and sucker more. There are also different cultivars and they grow at different rates than the species, especially if you get a dwarf like "Little Henry".

The trick to getting fall colour is to have the plant in quite a bit of sun. The more shade it's in, the more it tends toward an indeterminate green. Although summer sun may do the trick, I actually think it needs the sun to be hitting it in fall, when you want the leaves to colour up, but I'm less sure about that. The first spot I had mine in, where it stayed olive, was in mostly shade year-round. The second spot, where it showed gorgeous colour, in quite a bit of sun year-round. Now it's in my north-facing front yard where it gets summer sun but where the shadow of the house will envelop it by mid to late September. This is a test of its sun needs! Also, in my experience, Itea suckering is not of the running type that you get with, for example, the revoltingly aggressive flowering quince. The new shoots stay fairly close to the mother plant.

Me again...We have sweetspire (itea) cultivar 'Little Henry', some from Musser, some from Lowes. The oldest are 4-5 years, about 3' x 3'. They do sucker, and also will self-layer, but I don't think their behavior is invasive. I WANT mine to increase, because I need to cover another area. They are also pretty easy to start from cuttings.