Hmmm... I wish I had looked closer when I was at the nursery yesterday. I'll look again and shoot some photos next time I go.

What I do remember is the flowers were tiny and I wasn't all that impressed w/ the fragrance either. Perhaps it was b/c they were almost done flowering. The other thing I remember is that the trees were pretty unattractive looking. No offense to anyone who has one... it's just not a good looking plant! Now I would still get it if I had thought the fragrance was nice... but thus far I am not impressed.

Anyway, yours look almost too nice looking to be the Sweet Olive I saw! :)

Awww, it's not fair to compare gnarly nursery plants to a properly pruned and cultured specimen. And please try to smell some when the flowers are at their peak. I spent $25 on one for our yard and we rent. That's 5x what I've spent on any other plant I won't be keeping just because the fragrance was so amazing. I went to WM in Jan. to see if they had Caladium bulbs yet and smelled something so wonderful, I had to track it down. It was a single, 2-ft. tall little shrub with barely noticeable white flowers. No way, but yep, no other flowers in the whole area. It was this baby shrub perfuming the whole (outside) area of the store.

Fragrant, those leaves look big. How do they compare to your "sure" shrub? Similar amounts of light? Both potted? The soil in that pot looks really dense, without any tiny air pockets, mostly tiny closely-lodged particles. It looks like it's starting to struggle, going by the yellowing leaves at the bottom, and the fallen ones in the pot. If you don't want to repot (or in conjunction with repotting if you do want to,) you might try laying some banana peels on the surface of the soil, or for quicker impact, mixing banana peels in a blender with water and using that to water your shrub. Banana peels can inspire many "shy" plants to bloom, whether in a pot or not.

Hi thanks for your reply and yes you are right it could do with a repot but that could also be due to the fact it has been in winter storage as temps here can get down to -15 -20c and not 100% sure how hardy osmanthus Fragrans is! see a lot on contradicting reports online and as it was a new plant wanted to be safe then sorry, as for light unknown osmanthus outside in a heated glass greenhouse known osmanthus fragrans was only bought from Germany few weeks ago but since i have had it been growing in a north facing window. I am starting to believe it is a osmanthus but maybe not Fragrans here are 2 pics of the plants close up

Fragrans at the bottom unknown at the top

and another a little closer bottom 3 leaves osmanthus fragrans

i have noticed you have been giving a few people the Magic banana peels idea can not say i have heard of it but dont see any harm in giving it ago

The leaves do look identical, but there's nothing in the pics for scale to compare their size. Good looking leaves on both. From the angle of someone who knows much more about potted plants in general than this particular shrub, I would hope someone else could help with why it won't bloom. AFAIK, even if it's not O. fragrans, it should make some kind of flowers. I wonder if it needs more cooling than the heated greenhouse? They bloom very early here, when it's cold. Are there any in the ground around your area? Just realized you're in UK.

They both are OS frag., sure.

The one with small number of flowers is obviously four-season, that cultivar have long flowering time, but much less frag. to smell.

The other is "Qiugui" or say fall flowering OS. In general, qiugui takes 5-7 years to flower, provided it has enough sun light.

so, was it an osmanthus fragrans? did it finally give you flower?

they looks nice and healthy. where did you buy that flowering osmanthus fragrans? I found one from italy but they don't provide PC.

Hi Weilin i got mine from Burncoose https://www.burncoose.co.uk/site/plants.cfm?pl_id=3041 

good to know! thank you for the link.