Carl Wheeler Fortune Tea Olive. I don't know where this cultivar of Fortune's Osmanthus was hiding all my life, because I just stumbled upon it several years ago. Frankly, I think that it has the most handsome foliage of all of the Fortune Tea Olives. The leaves are a consistent dark green with pronounced uniform "teeth" bordering each leaf. It has the same white fragrant flowers of the "species", which is a hybrid between O. fragrans and O. heterophyllus. The latter species renders this species at least a zone hardier than O. fragrans. This species takes a little while longer to start flowering than O. fragrans, but once it starts one will be rewarded annually with its floral treat, This cultivar seems somewhat more compact in its growth habit than the other species. Give it full sun to part shade with well drained soil. I have researched the web to see if there is any information on the origin of this cultivar, but nothing has come up. Any information that one might have, I would be much obliged. The last slide is courtesy of Mike Chelednik.
Zones 7-9
