Party Princess® Tea Olive. This has to be one of the most incredible new introductions of this species in recent memory. The cultivar name in Japanese translates into "Fragrant Princess." We have put our parent plant in our office when it was in flower, and the whole office is fragrant. We found this cultivar in Japan in November 2009 and the parent plant was in full flower. The leaves are typical of this species, but are only half an inch long. But the most remarkable thing about it is that it will flower when only a few inches tall. Many plants this dwarf rarely flower, if ever, but the flowers are full size, so they put on quite a show and are just as fragrant as the species. WOW!!! We don't know the ultimate size of this cultivar. We originally thought that it would only reach 2 or 3 feet in height, but we are quite sure that it will become much larger than this. It is easily kept pruned back and would be ideal for a rock garden or very confined spaces or even as a container plant. This is the first Tea Olive that I would ever recommend for bonsai.
Zones 6-9
