Osmanthus fragrans (sweet olive or tea olive)
By Jeremy Schmidt
Director of Horticulture
I realized this morning, that throughout my life, I have spent more than half of my daylight hours in a garden somewhere! During all those cumulative years, I have enjoyed a multitude of beautiful flowers. And of all those flowers, the sweet olive is…well…nowhere near the top of the list.
The fall-borne flowers are rather non-descript and hard to see unless you’re somewhat close. The large evergreen shrub is also not exceptionally attractive on its own. It’s branching structure doesn’t age well compared to let’s say: a Japanese maple or a Loquat. Based on looks alone, Osmanthus fragrans is a decent screening plant for the back of the border (and that’s how it is generally used in southern gardens across the United States).
But here comes the fun part…sweet olive flowers are among the most powerfully fragrant flowers on earth (at least among pleasant-smelling flowers). I believe nearly anyone who has smelled Osmanthus fragrans permanently remembers the citrus-gardenia-esque smell. Think about that for a moment…although our minds are always recording, how much of what we sense is actually committed to memory? I am saying that while we probably forget more experiences than we remember in life, the saturated, thickly sweet smell of sweet olive will be remembered, along with everything else associated with that moment. A time portal has opened at Bellingrath Gardens & Home: memories activated by air filled with sweet olive scent transports us to where and when we first experienced it. Time travel powered by Osmanthus fragrans…that’s one of Bellingrath’s many garden superpowers!
Cultivating the Earth for what it’s Worth,
Jeremy Schmidt