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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