Fudingzhu Fragrant White Tea Olive (Osmanthus Fragrans) – 3 Gallon Pot

While most white flowering Tea Olives produce almost inconspicuous flowers, meet ‘Fudingzhu’, the heaviest blooming Tea Olive in existence…or at least that we’ve ever seen. From fall through winter and into spring, when temperatures are ranging between 45 and 75 degrees F, abundant, snowball-shape fragrant flowers completely encircle almost every stem. The flowers are so fragrant it takes only one plant to fill a half-acre front or back yard with intoxicating, sweet perfume, hence the other common name for this plant: Sweet Olive. You won’t have to wait long for flowers as this cultivar starts blooming during its first year of life. The lustrous, elongated evergreen, dark green leaves are an excellent backdrop to the flowers. All grown up, you can expect ‘Fudingzhu’ Tea Olive to reach maybe 10 feet in height or a little taller over time and maybe 8 feet wide. You can choose to grow this one as a large shrub or lower branches can be removed to form a highly attractive small tree. Exceptionally easy to grow and care for, we’ve seen absolutely no problems with insects or disease and deer won’t touch it! 

With and upright growth habit and rounded form 10 to 12 feet tall and 6 to 8 feet wide (depending on pruning), the Fudingzhu Tea Olive can be grown as a large shrub or small tree. As a shrub, its dense foliage makes it ideal for use as a specimen, an evergreen hedge, privacy screen, or background in landscape borders, or to frame the 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 focal point specimen tree for use in sunny to partially shaded landscape borders and home foundation plantings. There’s no need to plant this one near windows as one plant can fill a front or back yard with sweet aroma. A fine addition to fragrance gardens, white theme gardens, Asian gardens and Xeriscape gardens (low water needs).

Suggested Spacing:  5 to 6 feet apart for a solid hedge;  12 feet or more apart for space between plants

Note:  For our customers who live and garden North of USDA Cold Hardiness Zone 7b, where this Tea Olive variety is not reliably winter hardy, you’ll be happy to know it can be grown in containers that can be brought indoors during winter and placed back outside when temperatures warm up in spring.

The Fudingzhu Tea Olive is very easy to grow in most any average, moist but well-drained soil and full sun to part shade. We suggest at least 5 hours of direct sunlight per day or all-day lightly filtered sun for best flowering. As with many other plants, a constantly soggy or wet soil can be problematic. Exceptionally drought tolerant when established. Over decades, we’ve seen no insect or disease problems and deer won’t touch it.