Fortune’s Tea Olive (Osmanthus)
Osmanthus x fortunei
Plant Details
USDA Plant Hardiness Zones: 7a to 10b (6b?) Find Your Zone
Plant Type: Evergreen Flowering Shrub or Small Tree
Height at Maturity: 12-15′, with no pruning
Width at Maturity: 10-12′, with no pruning
Spacing: 6-8′ for solid hedges; 18’+ for space between plants
Growth Habit / Form: Upright, Dense, Rounded
Growth Rate: Moderate to Fast
Flower Color: White
Flower Size: Small, 1/4″ in clusters
Flowering Period: Fall, Early Winter
Flower Type: Single, in clusters
Fragrant Flowers: Yes, extremely fragrant!
Foliage Color: Deep Olive Green
Fragrant Foliage: No
Berries: No
Berry Color: NA
Sun Needs: Full to Mostly Sun, Morning Sun With Afternoon Shade, Morning Shade with Afternoon Sun. All day Filtered Sun
Water Needs: Average, Very Low when established
Soil Type: Clay (Amended), Loam, Sandy, Silty
Soil Moisture / Drainage: Well Drained Moist to Dry when established
Soil pH: 5.5 – 7.0 (Acid to Neutral)
Maintenance / Care: Average to Low
Attracts: Visual Attention
Resistances: Deer, Disease, Drought, Dry Soil, Heat, Insect
Description
Unbelievably fragrant and also very attractive, the Fortune’s Osmanthus, or Fortune’s Tea Olive, is a hybrid of Osmanthus fragrans and Osmanthus heterophyllus. As with other Tea Olive’s, Fortune’s produces abundant clusters of tiny white flowers in fall. The flowers might be small but they pack a punch when it comes to fragrance, filling the air in a front or back yard with sweet, heavenly aroma. This one has smaller, more lustrous leaves and a finer texture than Osmanthus fragrans, with juvenile leaves being toothed around the edges and adult leaves being smooth. A beautiful and easy-to-grow broadleaf evergreen that can be grown as a large shrub for hedges and screens or lower branches can be removed to form a highly attractive focal point specimen tree.
Landscape & Garden Uses
Growing 12 to 15 feet tall and 10 to 12 feet wide with no pruning, Fortune’s Osmanthus can be grown as a large shrub or small tree. The shrub can be kept smaller with occasional pruning. As a shrub, its dense foliage makes it ideal for use as a natural or clipped evergreen hedge, privacy screen, or background, or to frame corners or fill voids between widely-spaced windows in home foundation plantings. As it grows taller, lower branches can be removed to form a highly attractive small tree for use as a focal point specimen in sunny to partially shaded landscape borders and home foundation plantings. A fine addition to fragrance gardens, cottage gardens, white theme gardens and the Xeriscape (low water needs).
Suggested Spacing: 6 to 8 feet apart for a solid hedge or privacy screen; 16 feet or more apart for space between plants
Growing Preferences
Fortune’s Osmanthus is very easy to grow in most any average, moist but well-drained acidic to neutral soil and full sun to mostly shade. We suggest at least 3 hours of direct sunlight per day or all-day lightly filtered sun for best flowering. Exceptionally drought tolerant when established. Over decades of growing this plant in our own gardens, we’ve seen no insect or disease problems and deer don’t touch it. As with many other plants, a constantly soggy or wet soil can be problematic. No pruning necessary however responds well to to it for shaping purposes or hedges.
Helpful Articles
Click on a link below to find helpful advice from our experts on how to plant and care for Tea Olive Osmanthus shrubs and trees.
How To Plant A Tea Olive
How To Fertilize A Tea Olive
How To Prune Prune A Tea Olive Shrub Or Tree
Plant Long & Prosper!
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