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Tea Olive looks great, smells just as good Dora Fleming When I got a call encouraging me to come see the Tea Olive, Osmanthus fragrans, that was blooming in my daughter-in-law’s yard I wasn’t much moved to action. Tea olives in bloom I have seen and since the leaves nearly hide the little flowers that lurk down near the stem in the leaf axils, it isn’t really a sight that makes a gardeners heart beat faster. Then she said the flowers were orange and knock-you-down fragrant. Fragrant I believed, since osmanthus has few rivals in the realm of scented plants. I did have a problem believing the blossom color since I thought that Tea Olives had only one bloom color, white. I was wrong; the blooms were orange. Dr. Dirr records in his Manual of Woody Landscape Plants that this plant which so enchanted my daughter-in-law is a form of Osmanthus called “aurantiacus.” He even goes on to compliment it, calling it a plant with “A beautiful form.” The juvenile Osmanthus in form and leaf is not a lot like the adult plant it will become. The leaves in a young plant have marginal spines which are missing in an older specimen. The leaves in an immature form are so spiny that one of the common names for Osmanthus is “False Holly.” The adolescent Tea Olive has a decidedly upright form but as it ages it spreads out (some of us did the same thing). The Osmanthus wants it all “fertile, moist, well-drained soil. It is happiest in afternoon shade, but is fairly tolerant of full sun and probably blooms best there. It likes acid soil, so give it some azalea fertilizer in spring. This plant has the potential to grow into a large shrub, over 20 feet tall, but can be pruned without harm. It blooms spring and fall, so I haven’t a clue when one can prune it without sacrificing a bloom period. The best landscape use for Tea Olive is placement near porches, decks or entrances where the fragrance can be enjoyed. They can be planted in containers, but care would have to be taken that they don’t get root bound or outgrow their space. Most nurseries have osmanthus; and if you want an orange-flowering one you will need to visit the nursery this time of year when they are in bloom. An evergreen shrub that blooms twice a year and smells good, one almost doesn’t care what color the flowers are. Dora Garrick Fleming is a Clarke County native living and gardening in Winder, Ga.
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