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It is a Time of Sweet Tea Olives....

User
13 years ago

I just had to post these pics I took today.

Can you smell it?



Another one.....



I recently planted this Variegated Osmanthus

the new growth is bright red, does it get fragrant flowers too?

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I can't go in the house half the time, the fragrance is sooo good. They are truely my favorite fragrant.

Comments (10)

  • mehitabel
    13 years ago

    You lucky thing! Take an extra sniff for me :)

  • cweathersby
    13 years ago

    I've had a varigated one for years. No blooms yet, but it's still teensy tiny. I don't know why it isn't growing. Yours is about 10 times bigger than mine! They are supposed to bloom.

  • Xtal in Central TX, zone 8b
    13 years ago

    These have got to be some of the slowest growing plants. I rate it right up there with an oak. The ones I've got in the ground are nearing 5' and must be about 8 years old. I ordered a 'Fudingzhu' through a nursery in North Carolina and it's barely putting on inches. I can't wait for the day when their fragrance wafts through the air. I wonder how tall they'll have to be to do that. Any idea?

    Xtal

    Here is a link that might be useful: Fudingzhu Sweet Olive

  • longriver
    13 years ago

    I had only 6 inches of rooted cuttings about five years ago. They all planted in pots. Today they are all up 10 to 12 feet tall. They have not been showing much of flowers. I do feel that they shall produce more flowers from now on.

  • mehitabel
    13 years ago

    Xtal, a Fudingzu doesn't have to be 5' tall to bloom. I had one some years ago that bloomed profusely the same year I got it in a 3-gal size. It was maybe 2' tall, certainly no taller.

    I have one now that I got this spring in a 1 gal size. It is about 2' x 2' and just putting out a few flowers now.

    About the growth rate-- give it lots of water and it will grow faster. (That's true of Oaks, too, btw). I personally have not found either oaks or sweet olives to be really slow growth, but I always water a young plant generously for a couple of years or more.

    I have also found the growth increases exponentially on a sweet olive when you mist the plant several times a day. I mist both with the hose and occasionally with a fertilizer solution. The misting causes a whoosh of new growth. Try it, see if it works.

  • meyermike_1micha
    13 years ago

    Mehitabel...You are so right! Everytime it rains, or when I hose the plants off, I can't beleive the new growth that pops out!

    Mine grow pretty fast and they are all in pots..
    I am suprised no one ever talks about liming them though..

    Mike..:-)

  • meyermike_1micha
    13 years ago

    Butterfly4u..I can't remember the last time you responded to any of my compliments about your plants and advice, but I will say they are so beautiful..That's ok though..I still enjoy them..;-)

    Mike

  • longriver
    13 years ago

    How about the factor of "wind". I have seen Os plants pretty shabby and short under frequent windy condition.

  • mehitabel
    13 years ago

    What is this "liming them", Mike? Are you saying they like alkaline soil? If so, they will love it here, the water is very hard here.

  • User
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Mike,
    Glad to see you posted, thank you so much for compliment, how are your sweet olives doing?
    I don't lime my tea olives, just plant them in the ground in my horrible sandy soil and mulch them.
    The regular tea olives grow at a medium rate for me, but I do water them frequently in the heat, my soil is sooo sandy the water goes right through.
    I just bought the variegated one, it is different looking, about 3 feet tall, mabey, but it's so small I guess I won't have any flowers for a while, mabey in the spring, I can hope.
    I love the fall, it is my favorite time of year.