Female Fragrant Tea Olive. Most gardeners aren't aware that Osmanthus fragrans is a dioecious species, meaning that cultivars are separate male and female plants, just like Hollies. While many Osmanthus heterophyllus cultivars are female plants, which when pollinated will set black berries, most other species are only available as male cultivars. Since the Osmanthus genus is in the Olive family, Oleaceae, they produce fruit which closely resembles other members of this family such as Ligustrum and Chionanthus. Most all Osmanthus fragrans cultivars are male plants. At Woodlanders in Aiken, SC, just a few miles from us here, there is a mature female plant of Osmanthus fragrans which fruits heavily almost yearly. I was given permission to take cuttings, but since it was such an old plant, the cuttings were very difficult to root. But now we have some "female" Tea Olives to offer. This is one of the earliest flowering selections of Osmanthus that we grow. This selection would be particularly of interest to one wanting to do breeding work with this species. From the pictures, one can see that the flowers have no anthers, the male part of a flower, but instead have as pistil in the middle of the flower.
Zones 7-10
