Hi @Tobias Hofer,

Thank you very much for your sharing.

I agree with you that the O. f. var. aurantiacus can resist cold weather better than many other cultivars.

The brown tip leaves on my Sweet Olive plants are due to hot, dry summer in my area. During summer days, the outdoor temperature is between 95℉ to 105℉. About three years ago, I installed several micro-sprayers above all my plants to solve the problems. It helped. But due to the drought in California last year, we had water usage restrictions, I had to turn the sprayers off for the whole summer. The plants got less but enough water for the soil through water dripping system. They seemed gone through the last dry, hot summer okay with plenty of flowers in the last autumn.

The factors which could cause brown tip leaves on Sweet Olive plants are:

The soil is too dry for a long period of time.

The soil is too wet for a long period of time.

It is too much fertilizer for the plant.

The weather is too hot and too dry.

It is too windy for the location.

The plant is shedding its old leaves.

The plant is dying.

etc.

We need to study their conditions and solve the problems accordingly. @Grant Yang (Sydney Australia) is right. The brown tip leaves on Sweet Olive plants is relatively common. Sweet Olive plants are tropical, sub-tropical plants, they need moisture in the air.

Below, I turned on the water micro-sprayer for the picture. A lot of young branches and leaves are coming out at this time of the year (Spring). The brown tip leaves will be shed eventually.

Hi @Tobias Hofer,
Thank you very much for sharing your photos and inviting us to visit your beautiful garden.

Thank you, my garden is not ready yet. I inherited the garden, there is still a lot of work to do.

They're looking very good now. I used liquid flower mineral fertilizer from the hardware store and the leaves now look healthy.

Hi @Tobias Hofer,

The leaves of your Osmanthus aurantiacus are indeed very healthy and full of life. Thank you very much for sharing. We appreciate if you could share some blooming photos of your plants later this year.

May and June are the best months of the year to propagate Osmanthus fragrans. The branches are more viable to reproduce.

The Four-season flower blooming group of O. fragrans may not have the strong scent as compared to the Autumn flower blooming group. However, if we propagate more and put them together in our garden, they certainly will increase the intensity of the aroma in the area and the scent will last for many more months too.

What is the best way to root them? I tried softwood cuttings in sand but all dried out.

Hi @sabut,
Layering and cuttings are two common propagation methods for Osmanthus fragrans. In my personal opinion, perlite is better than sand for the purpose. Sand is too dense and they just hold the water outside the sand particles. Perlite do store and hold water and air inside their particles. So, perlite can provide minute of water and air for the cuttings a little bit longer. The mixture of peat moss and perlite is a good medium for plant propagation.

I would like to share my recent propagation of Osmanthus fragrans by cuttings.

I used "Seed Starter Kit", or "Plug Tray", with tall transparent cover (clear plastic dome). The medium which I used was peat moss with some perlite. The whole setting was under 12 hours of fluorescent light every day. I let them grow for 70 days to get more roots.

@matt2838 Great! So this cutting works for Osmanthus Aurantiacus as well ? If the mother plant has already bloomed, how long(years) before your Aurantiacus cuttings started blooming ?

I am going to say, right away?

When I root a cutting some bloom while rotting.

What Zones are you in ?

Grant, hope all is well.

Hi @Grant Yang (Sydney Australia),
Yes, It works for the Osmanthus aurantiacus. But it took a few years for my O. aurantiacus cuttings to produce the flowers of their own, between 5 years to 10 years. I lost track of the exact number of years. This semi-hardwood cutting propagation also works for other varieties of Osmanthus fragrans, and they take shorter time to have their first season of flowering. The varieties of the Four Season Group take the shortest time.

During the cutting process of my own plants, the twigs from the mother plant might have flower buds hidden inside them already. The flower buds might bloom while the twigs were still in the process of forming their roots. Sometimes, the flower buds bloomed after the twigs had finished the propagation process and had been transplanted to their own new pots. At this point, I could not determine if the flowers were produced by the twigs themselves or carried on from their mother plant. Only when the twigs produced another bloom in their subsequent flowering season, then I knew the twigs were truly capable of producing their own flowers from then on.

Yes the Osmanthus Aurantiacus seems to be very slow in their first blooming (anout 4-6 years after being planted), see my earlier post https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6251536/osmanthus-aurantiacus-orange-supreme-bloomed-1st-time-in-4-5-years . I was just wondering maybe a successful cutting from an already blooming mother plant may be quicker in its first blooming...

@Meyermike(Zone 6a Ma.) :

According to Wikipedia, Sydney's plant hardiness zone ranges from zone 11a to 9b throughout the metropolitan area(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Sydney#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20Bureau%20of,9b%20throughout%20the%20metropolitan%20area.)

My osmanthus plants are blooming right now in zone 7. The fragrance is very nice.

Hi @Sunny Do,
The flowers of your Osmanthus plants are very beautiful. I particularly like your flowers with such long flower stalks. They make the flowers look like shooting stars. Could you tell us the varieties of these two Osmanthus fragrans? Thank you very much for sharing.

Here ist all fine Bloom Start this Picture at 10. September 2022

Hi @Tobias Hofer,

You really take good care of your Osmanthus aurantiacus, with many beautiful orange flowers and healthy lush green leaves. Thank you very much for sharing.

Due to constant drought in California and a very hot summer this year in my area, as high as 115℉ at the East Bay of SF Bay Area, I manage with drip irrigation system to conserve the water. All my Osmanthus fragrans survive but with a lot of brown tips on their leaves.

I am very happy to know that your Osmanthus fragrans var. aurantiacus in Europe are blooming at the same time as in Northern America. The fragrance is just amazing.

I only fertilize with mineral fertilizers. Every 4 weeks Blue Grain Liquid.

Today 23.September 2022

Most of the varieties of matured Osmanthus fragrans are blooming in late September and in October, including Autumn blooming varieties (aurantiacus, thunbergii, latifolius, etc) and Four Season varieties (regular Osmanthus fragrans, Fudingzhu, Tian Xiang Tai Ge, Ri Xiang Gui, semperflorens, etc ).

If someone want to get any of them, this is the good time of the year. Check with your local nurseries. If you are going to buy them from Internet nurseries, ask the sellers if the varieties which they are going to send you are blooming at this time.
If you own several varieties, this is also the best time to compare any differences of their scents and strength.

I hope you enjoy the fragrance of Osmanthus fragrans as much as I do.

Hello Matt & everyone,

To answer your question:

the osmanthus with the light color in the picture below is probably four-season. It was grown by Balcom nursery. It is about 6 f tall and 4 feet wide now, blooming with lots of flowers, it is in the ground. I have another one of the same size in big pot, blooming with less flowers. So planting it in the ground produced more flowers. They are not in full sun location.

The orange one is four season Echo. the scent is ok. The plant looked very leggy.

I also have one auranticus about 5 feet tall starting to bloom with a couple clusters of flowers now. I can’t comment on the scent yet.

I also have 1 Rixiang gui about 2 feet tall, also blooming. It has nice scent.

My Fodingzhu (2 feet) does not bloom at this moment, and bloomed much less than rixiang gui.

I bought 3 Tianxiang, they are still small and growing, have not bloomed yet.

According to the story, this one would be the most fragrant osmanthus.

I am in zone 7, so the weather started to cool down in September, around 55-60 F at night, and 70-75F during the day. This is the temperature that triggers flowering. Starting August I foliar-feeded the plants (osmanthus and camellia) with 4-26-26 frequently. I love osmanthus scent. It is so nice to be outside and smell the fragrance of osmanthus.

Hi @Sunny Do, @Tobias Hofer,
Thank you very much for sharing your detail experience and observation. I total agree with you that plants are happier if they grow in ground. With sufficient sunlight, they can produce enough sugar through photosynthesis to sustain their lives. With adequate fertilizer, they have the building blocks to build their healthy bodies.

I am always amazed that a cutting of a plant has such wonderful built in design to be able to transform itself into a new plant.

I air-layered several mature branches of Osmanthus aurantiacus a few days ago (Sept. 15, 2022). I hope to find out if these new daughter plants will take fewer years to flower.

Hello, everyone.

I am happy to share my Osmanthus fragrans var. aurantiacus which is blooming at the moment in my garden in Istria. I planted it in September this year. The scent is indeed heavenly.

Hi @SeedG (Zone 9b - 10b),

Thank you very much for sharing. The lush green leaves of Osmanthus aurantiacus embellished with deep orange flowers is just lovely.

I’m based in the UK and I’ve been searching for Osmanthus frangrans for years. While I persistently call up all nurseries, I’ve enjoyed reading everyone’s posts here which give me so much valuable information. After reading your commemts, I’m more inclined to get Osmanthus aurantiacus and luckily I managed to buy one from a local nursery this week! And it’s blooming!

Hi @Fei’s secret garden,

I am very happy for you. Most of us here had to wait for a few years before we could see the first flowering of our Osmanthus aurantiacus. Thank you very much for sharing.

Thank you @matt2838! Mine came in a 10L pot. It was quite a trip to travel to the nursery but I’m happy that I had the luxury of picking anyone in flower. I’ve planted it in the ground already and hopefully it’ll keep giving me flowers in subsequent years. This cultivar is Osmanthus fragrans f. aurantiacus ‘Rubra’ and its scent is quite subtle. I tried hard to get an Osmanthus fragrans thunbergii ( jin gui), because all the information I found in Chinese suggested that you smell it before you see it. But for now, I’m happy enough with the orange flowers of ’Rubra’ . :) Would be great to hear more stories about ’Rubra’ if anyone knows more about this cultivar.

Very beautiful plants. Thank you for sharing. In the EU you can order osmanthus of different varieties in Italy. Search Google for OSMANTO ODOROSO.
I bought the one with the orange blossom on purpose. I could have had the yellow tunbergii too. But they are not very temperature resistant.

Thank you @HU-512680813.You are absolutely right. When I asked the nursery, they told me this was the only osmanthus fragrans variety they’ve got as it’s the most winter hardy - they just leave the pots outdoors and they overwinter fine. We do have some harsh winters here in the UK and hopefully my ’Rubra’ survives and thrives in the warm corner I picked for it.

England and Austria are certainly not the places that the plant would choose. I hope the winter won't be too cold. Google: Osmanto odoroso prezzo

I read :

in July, 10 cm long mature or semi-mature wood cuttings are cut and planted in a box in a bed at about 20 degrees in a mixture of peat and sand in equal parts. The rooted cuttings are transplanted into pots with universal soil and overwintered in a cool box. The following April they are planted and cultivated for two years before planting.

Planting March-April / October-November. Spring flowering in April-May and autumn flowering in September-November Cut for spring flowering in June. Cut for autumn flowering in February or March.

I planted an osmanthus in acidic soil with a lot of peat. The flower has become much lighter, almost yellow. last year the oranges bloomed.

I have 2 osmanthus This plant I fertilized organically in spring. It grew much worse than the blue grain fertilized..

I transferred the cuttings of my Osmanthus fragrans, which I did it in June, into 4-inch pots. One of the cuttings ( a Four-Season O.f. flowering group ) is flowering on the old branches of the cutting. The mother plant which the cutting was originated is also blooming right now. I believe the cutting continued the flower budding process long before it was separated from the mother plant.
The fragrance is not as strong as the Autumn varieties, but the scent is just as pleasant and sweet.

Since we want to find out if air-layered mature branches of Osmanthus aurantiacus (Red, Orange Gui Hua) could take fewer years to flower, I did air-layering propagation of a few branches of O. aurantiacus last September, 2022. I also air-layered other varieties. I hope to find out if it has the similar effect on other varieties.

After 7 months, the variety, Osmanthus fragrans var. thunbergii (Golden Gui Hua), is the first one to show up its new adventitious roots in its plastic wrap today. ( It seems that the past long cold winter did slow down their growth.)

Air-layering of Osmanthus fragrans var. thunbergii.

Potted new Osmanthus thunbergii by Air-layering.

Since the plant is still young and the root system is not well established yet, I trimmed some of the brown-tip old leaves and some branches.

Looks good.

Hi @HU-512680813
Indeed, your Osmanthus fragrans is very healthy with a lot of new leaves and new branches. I am sure you will have a lot of flowers this coming flowering season. Thank you very much for sharing with us.

here is a good video about cuttlings

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/q4elSC33Rto

and another Method

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bzlpDE_uk4I

Hi @Tobias Hofer, thank you for sharing the two videos about cuttings.

I believe everyone here love the fragrance of the O. fragrans. It would be fun to propagate a few daughter plants from your collections for yourselves and your friends.

We welcome everyone to share your experience of propagation of these lovely plants, discussions as well as questions and answers in this forum.

Thank You.

My Favorit Cutting Method https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yab53mKFpj0&t=1s

I have 2 osmanthus and only this one at 266 meters above sea level spreads its smell far, at least 7 meters in each direction. The other stands 50 kilometers away at 605 meters above sea level and the winters
are too cold there.

Hi @Tobias Hofer
Thank you for sharing the youtube video. I wish the you-tuber can cultivate the O. fragrans leaf cuttings longer to show us if the leaves can develop into full function independent plants.
For a leaf cutting to develop the above ground structure, tissues and organs of a plant is much harder than develop a root system. The leaf cells have to go through many transformations, dedifferentiation, differentiation of many stages to form phloem, cambium, xylem, flower and other organs and tissues etc. There are a few species of plants have such interesting capabilities, African violets, begonia etc.
By the way, I had a leisure tour to Salzburg and Vienna, Austria two weeks ago. Austria is a very friendly and beautiful country.

-- By the way, I had a leisure tour to Salzburg and Vienna, Austria two weeks ago. Austria is a very friendly and beautiful country.--

@ Matt

Thank you, I'm so glad you enjoyed the trip! Between Salzburg and Vienna, the city of Linz in Upper Austria is 266 meters above sea level, there in Linz is the beautiful osmanthus plant. Probably, you drove through the city of Linz and were very close. It would have been my pleasure to show you the plant in Linz! Australia has a good reputation in Austria. We also find you very interesting because of the name. It sometimes happens that tourists confuse us with Australia, especially often children of tourists ask about kangaroos :) As far as I know, we are the only 2 countries with Latin names. Austria = East Empire and tera Australis (Australia) = Southern country.
Unfortunately, your beautiful country is so far away, otherwise more Austrians would vacation in your beautiful Australia. I sometimes watch the show Australian Border Control Airport on TV, I guess I couldn't have given you cuttings. Your border control works very well. It would have been an honor to give you a cutting, my plant smells very far and good but unfortunately the flowers are not very orange colored.

Hi @Tobias Hofer,
Thank you very much for the suggestion. I hope one day I will visit Austria again and follow you to visit Linz, I also would like to have a chance to enjoy the wonderful fragrance of your Osmanthus aurantiacus.

My osmanthus aurantiacus is blooming abundantly for the first time. It smells stronger than the white one.

Hi @Sunny Do,

Thank you very much for sharing your photos and observation. I totally agree with you that the Osmanthus aurantiacus has very strong pleasing fragrance.

Anyone who want to get one, right now is the best time to visit your local nurseries looking for them while they are flowering. (Osmanthus aurantiacus and other Autumn blooming varieties only bloom from late September to early November, but they have the strongest scent.) I imagine they would not stay on the shelves for long for such attractive smell. I would buy the ones which are flowering rather than those without flower.

Many years ago, I bought my first young Osmanthus aurantiacus and other Autumn blooming varieties without any flower at the time. I waited for many years for them to mature to bloom. It was really a painful wait. But once the plants start blooming, they will bloom each year thereafter. Years of painful waiting memory will be forgotten. The Osmanthus aurantiacus took the longest wait.

Since Osmanthus fragrans plants flower on both new and older branches, as the plants grow older and more branches are present, there will be more flower clusters. The blooming is getting more spectacular by the year. Hope everyone enjoy your Osmanthus fragrans as much as I do.

My O. fragrans are blooming right now too.

Osmanthus aurantiacus

Osmanthus latifolius

Hi everyone, I’m happy to share photos of my Osmanthus fragrans var. aurantiacus which is blooming right now. I’m based in the UK and it’s blooming for the second year in my garden. The scent is definitely more overwhelming than last year with more prolific flowers. I cut a small beanch and brought it to my office so I can enjoy the scent all day. It gives so much satisfaction and joy when surrounded by the scent. Definitely a plant worth having! P.S. it’s strange the blooms seem to come in different batches. You can see from the photos that the upper half is covered with flowers wheareas the lower half still has buds on the branches.

Hi @Fei’s secret garden,

Indeed, the cheerful orange color flowers together with the sweet olive fragrance can certainly brighten up our days. Thank you very much for sharing.

This autumn this plant flowering 2 times.

the Second Plant

Hi @Tobias Hofer,

Nice to see your plants grow taller and with a lot of flowers! Thanks for sharing.

The Plant grows well.

Hi HU-512680813,

Your plant grows taller with a lot of new leaves. I am sure you will have a whole lot more of new flowers this year. Thank you for your update and sharing.