Orange Flowering Tea Olive

One of the most powerfully fragrant shrubs you can grow, perfuming the whole autumn garden with the scent of ripe apricots.

Orange Flowering Tea Olive (Osmanthus fragrans 'Aurantiacus') is a broadleaf evergreen prized for its tiny clusters of vivid orange blooms that open in fall, just as most of the garden is winding down. The flowers are small and easy to overlook, but their fragrance is unmistakable, carrying on the cool air across an entire yard. Glossy, leathery deep-green leaves stay handsome all year, and the plant matures into a dense, upright 8-to-10-foot shrub that takes well to shaping. Use it as a fragrant evergreen anchor near a patio, walkway, or window where the autumn scent can be enjoyed up close.

Why growers choose the 'Aurantiacus' tea olive

• Intense fall fragrance. Clusters of orange blooms release a rich apricot-and-jasmine scent that drifts well beyond the plant itself.
• Year-round structure. Dense, glossy evergreen foliage holds its color through winter, giving you screening and form in every season.
• Cold-hardy for a tea olive. Reliable in USDA zones 5 through 9, it tolerates more cold than many fragrant evergreens.
• Deer resistant. The tough, aromatic foliage is generally left alone by browsing deer.
• Adaptable and low-maintenance. Happy in full to part sun, it shears cleanly into a hedge or grows naturally as a specimen.

Plant it as a fragrant foundation shrub, an evergreen privacy hedge along a property line, or a focal point in a mixed border. Sited near a seating area, doorway, or open window, it turns the fall season into a daily sensory pleasure.