Plant: Sweet Olive / Osmanthus Fragrans

Plant description

Fragrant tea olive is a dense, erect, multi stemmed evergreen shrub or small tree 10 to 20 feet tall and 10 to 14 feet wide with leathery, lustrous dark green leaves 2 to 5 inches long. Small four petalled flowers open in the leaf axils in early spring and again in fall, white in the typical variety and pale orange in var. aurantiacus, carrying an intense apricot like fragrance; they are dried and added to tea. Black to blue drupes follow in winter. It takes full sun to partial shade, tolerates clay, and is deer resistant, drought tolerant and slightly salt tolerant. Frost can damage the buds and cut short the fall bloom.

Flowers

Small four to five petalled flowers appear in the leaf axils in early spring and again in fall, white in var. fragrans and pale orange in var. aurantiacus, with an intense fragrance likened to apricots. The flowers are dried and added to tea.

Foliage

Simple, opposite, leathery and lustrous dark green leaves 2 to 5 inches long and 1 to 3 inches wide, with finely dentate or entire margins.

Pruning

Responds well to pruning, but prune carefully and soon after bloom because next season's flowers develop on the current year's growth.

Native range

China, Japan and Southeast Asia

Plant details