Fragrant Tea Olive

As low as $39.99 was $39.99
Availability: In stock
SKU
FTOTREE

Fragrant Tea Olive Perfumes Your Landscape

  • Incredibly Fragrant Flowers Create Happy Memories
  • Luscious Scented Fall and Spring Blooms
  • Gorgeous, Glossy Evergreen Foliage
  • Hardy, Long Lived Hedge for Full Sun or Partial Shade
  • Drought Tolerant Once Established
  • Great in Containers for Patios Planters
  • Grow as a Houseplant in Cold Climates
  • Well-Behaved, Easy-Care
  • Disease and Pest Resistant

Many of you have happy memories playing near this incredible shrub. The Fragrant Tea Olive (Osmanthus fragrans) bears deliciously scented, tiny white flower clusters from fall through early spring.

This is a very popular, upright evergreen shrub also known as the Sweet Olive or Fragrant Olive. The heavenly scent is described as rich and sweetly fruity like Apricot or Peach. Others think it smells like a gorgeous cross between Gardenia and Jasmine. You can easily smell the dainty flowers blooming on a Fragrant Tea Olive in every part of your yard.

Its absolutely covered in blooms in early spring, and sporadically through summer with another flush of blooms in fall. Depending on where you live, the Fragrant Tea Olive can provide color and scent at a time when other plants arent blooming.

This wonderful shrub is the Lilacs answer for the warmer Zones Its incredibly versatile and can be grown in either full sun or in partial shade.

Its native to a wide area of Asia, where it has been a popular landscape plant for thousands of years. Today, modern homeowners around the world show an appreciation for its beauty and fragrance.

Like many Asian plants, the Fragrant Tea Olive displays a graceful form. With branches that are held strongly erect, the upright growth habit of this shrub easily brings a visual energy to your landscape.

With dark green, finely toothed, vibrantly glossy evergreen leaves held densely from the base to the top, the Fragrant Tea Olive makes a wonderful screening plant or soft hedge. It can be used in many ways, including pruned as a magnificent small tree or as a standalone specimen.

It gets its name from the tiny black fruit that you will hardly notice. The fruit is inedible, and this is a shrub grown for its wonderful fragrant flowers. The shiny evergreen foliage is a big bonus!

People dry the edible flowers to include in green and black tea mixes. In addition, the flowers are used in Sweet Cakes, dumplings, soups and liquors. The flowers are also found in traditional Chinese medicine where it has been used to treat assorted ailments.

Whether you order it for its beauty or its fragrance, you will be glad you bought it and wonder why you didn't order more. That heavenly smell really takes you back. Dont miss this one order today!

How to Use Fragrant Tea Olive in the Landscape

Grown as a shrub, or limbed up over time into either a multi-trunked or single trunked tree, youll love exploring the ways Fragrant Tea Olive can decorate your landscape. A versatile plant, this selection has many applications in the landscape.

Popular as a useful screen or hedge plant, the Fragrant Tea Olive takes to pruning very well. Plant as close as 4 to 5 feet on center to allow this slow to moderate growing plant to fill in quickly. Use a staggered double row with a zig-zagged planting pattern to reach coverage even faster.

This is the perfect plant for that location that needs a hedge but is in some shade. Add this fragrant flowering shrub to existing windbreaks or create a new living fence. We advise buying the largest container size in stock to shortcut the process.

Use this fragrant evergreen to create the walls of a special garden room. It would be an incredible addition to a Zen, Asian or Meditation Garden. Why not gift yourself a private retreat by carving out some space in your back yard?

Youd be amazed at how much larger your yard will look when you introduce screening as a design element. If you cant see everything all at once, the yard looks twice as large!

A hedge of Fragrant Tea Olive looks crisp and clean. With its vertical lines, it makes a wonderful contrasting backdrop for plants with rounded or even weeping habits.

If you want a very special accent tree, select the strongest trunks and remove all the rest. Choose 1, 3, 4, or 5 for different looks. Limb up the lowest horizontal branches. Over time, you can train Fragrant Tea Olive into a specimen accent tree. Anchor the corner of your foundation or use to accent a patio area. It will thrive in either full sun or part shade.

You can even grow this plant in a large container. Keep it as a houseplant in cold winter zones and bring it out as a seasonal patio plant. Youll love the wonderful fragrance to a patio area as well as the healthy, rich, green foliage.

Overwinter your plant indoors in a well-lit, protected location. Watch your winter water and be careful not to overwater the plant when inside. The Fragrant Tea Tree can be a large house plant when given plenty of light and a location away from dry heat sources like stoves or heater vents.

Even warm winter gardeners might like to use this plant in gorgeous containers. You can easily keep it pruned for size, and a portable version can be placed in just the right spots to screen your home from prying eyes. Use several in matching containers for a lush, stylish and sophisticated patio decoration.

Many areas list the Fragrant Tea Olive on their firewise plant lists for firescaping.

#ProPlantTips for Care

It's such a beautiful and wonderfully scented shrub that you'd think it would be a diva in the garden, but it's not. This is an easy care plant that asks for well-drained soil and a yearly application of fertilizer for acidic plants in spring. It easily tolerates of a wide range of soil types including clay - as long as the drainage is good. Dont plant this too deeply.

In the hotter areas, give the Fragrant Tea Olive protection from the hot afternoon sun and a thick 3 to 4 inch layer of mulch over the root zone. In Zone 7, dont plant this in open, windy areas to reduce the chance of winter burn.

It is disease-resistant and becomes drought tolerant after the first season. For best results, allow soil to dry out a bit between deep, saturating watering sessions to encourage root growth. Do keep an eye on new plants. Increase water during periods of exceptionally hot and dry temperatures.

Fragrant Tea Olive will grow to a tall shrub over time. If youd like to keep the size in check, prune 1/3 off the top every few years. Wait until after the early spring blooms are finished.

This is a wonderful plant that easily perfumes your landscape. Once you smell those fabulous flowers, we know youll find a spot for it somewhere outside or even in your home as a houseplant.

Order now, as we regularly sell out of inventory of this popular shrub.

Buying Options for Plants

Nature Hills sells a large variety of plants with several options available. Plants are offered in both potted containers and as dormant bare root without soil. Here is a helpful resource to understand your options as you create a beautiful landscape with help from Nature Hills.

Ever wonder what a larger plant will mean for your landscape? Container Sizes are really all about the age of the plant!

Seasonally, Nature Hills offers hand selected, high quality bare root trees, shrubs and perennials. Bare root plants are sold by height from the top of the root system to the top of the plant. Plants may be taller than the height minimums.

  • Popular sizes of select trees are 1 foot, 2 feet, 3 feet, etc.
  • Popular sizes of select bare root plants is 1 foot, 18 inches, etc.

Nature Hills Container Size by Volume

Keep in mind, specific varieties and different growing conditions can affect the rate at which plants grow. Variations in size may occur.

Young Plants to 18 Months
Size Volume
2"x2"x3" Ranges from .18 to .21 dry quarts / .198 to .23 dry liters in volume
4.5" Container Equal to .65 dry quart / .72 dry liter in volume
Sprinter Pot Equal to .63 dry quart / .69 dry liter in volume
4" Container Ranges from .31 to .87 / .35 to .96 dry liter in volume
6" Container Equal to 1.4 dry quarts / 1.59 dry liters in volume
1 Quart Equal to 1 dry quart / 1.1 dry liter in volume
5.5" Container Equal to 1.89 of a dry quart / 2.08 dry liters in volume
4"x4"x5" Ranges from .8 to 1.1 dry quarts / .88 to 1.2 dry liters in volume
4"x4"x6" Ranges from 1.0 to 1.3 dry quarts / 1.1 to 1.41 dry liters in volume
4"x4"x9" Ranges from 1.1 to 2.1 dry quarts / 1.2 to 2.3 dry liters in volume
4"x4"x10" Ranges from 1.7 to 2.3 dry quart / 1.87 to 2.53 dry liters in volume
Plants 18 Months - 2.5 Years Old
Size Volume
2 Quart Equal to 2 dry quarts / 2.2 dry liters in volume
#1 Container Ranges from 2.26 to 3.73 dry quarts / 2.49 to 4.11 dry liters in volume
5"x5"x12" Equal to 3.5 to 4.3 dry quarts / 3.85 to 4.74 dry liters in volume
Plants 2 - 4 Years Old
Size Volume
#2 Container Ranges from 1.19 to 1.76 dry gallons / 5.24 to 7.75 dry liters in volume
#3 Container Ranges from 2.32 to 2.76 dry gallons / 10.22 to 12.16 dry liters in volume
Plants 3 - 5 Years Old
Size Volume
#5 Container Ranges from 2.92 to 4.62 dry gallons / 12.86 to 20.35 dry liters in volume
#6 Container Ranges from 5.25 to 6.01 dry gallons / 23.12 to 26.42 dry liters in volume
#7 Container Ranges from 5.98 to 6.08 dry gallons / 26.34 to 26.78 dry liters in volume

About Plant Sentry™

Plant Sentry is designed to protect both consumers and the nursery trade from invasive plant pests and diseases. Sites that display the Plant Sentry protection badge are protected from consumers buying and nurseries shipping material carrying invasive pests and diseases.

This proprietary eCommerce software prevents the shipment of a restricted plant to each state. The Plant Sentry system includes a shipment certification program. The Plant Sentry Compliance Officer works closely with NatureHills.com and each nursery or fulfillment center to ensure only compliant plants are sold to customers.

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Plant Sentry

Shipping

To obtain a more accurate shipment time-frame, simply enter your zip code in the “Find Your Growing Zone” box to the right. Our plants are grown all over the country and lead time on items may be different because of this. Once your order is placed, you will also receive the specific shipment time-frame information as part of your order confirmation. Once an item ships, you will receive shipment notification and tracking numbers, so you can follow along while your plant travels to your doorstep. We use FedEx, UPS, or USPS at our discretion.

Due to winter weather we have put a hold on shipping to the areas shown below in grey. You can still order now and we will ship the plant to you during an appropriate time for your zone.

*If you have found your zone already, it will be highlighted in the table below.
Color Zone Times
3 Spring 2019
4 Now
5 Now
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11 Now

Shipping Rates

At Nature Hills we handle, package and ship the products you order with the utmost care to ensure healthy delivery. Shipping and handling charges are calculated based on the tables below. Please note that some items include an additional handling surcharge, these will be noted on the item's product page.

From To S&H
0 - 19.99 24.99
20 - 49.99 29.99
50 - 69.99 34.99
70 - 99.99 39.99
100 - 129.99 44.99
130 - 149.99 48.99
150 - 150+ Approx 28%

Click here to see our full rates

PLANT HIGHLIGHTS

Fragrant Tea Olive Is Suited to Grow in Zones 7-11
Growing Zones 7-11
More Information
Brand Nature Hills' Choice
Botanical Name Osmanthus fragrans
Mature Height 10 - 15 feet
Mature Spread 6 - 8 Feet
Sun Exposure Full Sun
Soil Well Drained
Moisture Low
Growth Rate Medium, Slow
Flower Color Evergreen
Foliage Evergreen
Foliage Color Green
Fall Color Evergreen
Pollinator Friendly Yes