Osmanthus fragrans Sweet Olive seed
LATIN NAME: Osmanthus fragrans
COMMON NAME: Sweet Osmanthus
The sweet osmanthus is the scent that carries across the whole neighbourhood in the warm autumn. The large, evergreen shrub or small tree carries the glossy, dark-green leaves and the small, creamy-white, intensely fragrant flowers in the dense axillary clusters through the late summer and the autumn, and the fragrance carries a long way on the still, warm air. The plant is one of the great scented plants of the East, and the flowers have a very long record of use in the teas, the wines and the sweets. It is a shrub of the open, sunny to partly shaded, well-drained ground.
Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology
The sweet osmanthus has a long, fragrant chapter in the plant science, studied for the small, creamy-white flowers and the intense, carried scent. The chemistry of the fragrance and the way the plant flowers through the warm autumn have been studied at length, and it keeps showing up in the work on the scented shrubs, the perfumery plants and the members of the olive family. The glossy, dark-green leaves and the large, rounded habit have also made it a fine garden shrub, and the sweet osmanthus is a regular subject of the studies of the great scented plants of the East.
Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications
The sweet osmanthus is the scent of the warm autumn evenings, with a very long list of uses. The small, creamy-white flowers have a very long record of use in the teas, the wines, the sweets and the perfumes of the East, and the fragrance carries across the whole garden on the warm autumn air. The glossy, dark-green shrub is also a fine, long-lived hedge, screen and specimen of the warm garden, keeping its good looks through the year. It has been written about in the culinary, the perfumery and the horticultural papers for the carried scent and the very long record of use, and it is a fine, long-lived shrub of the open, sunny to partly shaded, well-drained garden.
The sweet osmanthus is one of the great scented plants of the East, and the small, creamy-white flowers have a very long record of use in the teas, the wines, the sweets and the perfumes. The fragrance carries across the whole garden on the warm autumn air.
To grow the sweet osmanthus from seed, sow the fresh seeds in pots of moist, free-draining soil, and keep the pots in a shady spot, in a bright, sheltered corner with gentle watering. The seedlings come up slowly and grow on steadily. With the sun or the light shade and the well-drained ground, the autumn scent will carry through the warm season.
Osmanthus fragrans is a very intensely fragrant, hardy plant. The floral scent of the evergreen shrub is so intense that it requires only a single plant to dive an entire patio in lovely peach blossom fragrance. The flowers appear throughout the year.
