They may not be common in PNW but here in Southeast you can see (or rather smell) at least one plant in almost every neighborhood. I have read that these plants are very common in New Orleans. I would not say they smell light to medium, they are actually some of, if not the strongest fragrant plants I know, and their apricot fragrance wafts hundreds of feet. I grow my 4 bushes in full sun with no watering and they are showing absolutely no summer stress. They start blooming in the late summer as soon as there are a few nights in a row with the temperature dropping below 70, but I have "everblooming" cultivars.

Yes, I do know they can more commonly be seen in the South.

But it's interesting they are virtually unheard of in the Pacific Northwest.

I can only suspect it's due to a combination of peculiar climate differences (drier conditions, clearer skies and more intense sun during the summer, absence of intense humidity) and some of these plants just never catching on in this region. A lot of people who settled in the PNW either came from other parts in the northern half of the country, where it is much too cold for plants like osmanthus and gardenia, or they came from California where it is too hot and dry, where these plants are considered very difficult to grow. Camellias are incredibly common in the PNW, but I'm guessing they are easier to grow. Perhaps the many Japanese owned nurseries that used to be on the West Coast had something to do with that.

I'd say that even olive trees are much more common in the PNW than osmanthus, you can occasionally see one growing in someone's yard. Obviously there's a tendency for people in the PNW to want to grow things that grow in California.

I'll tell you something else that's really rare in the PNW, for some reason: Poet's jasmine. Ironically you are far more likely to find pink jasmine and star jasmine in the nurseries here, despite those species being much less cold tolerant, and arguably not smelling as good. And despite Poet's jasmine being the jasmine type that was traditionally planted in England. Seems inexplicable to me. Again, I can only suspect this has something to do with the phenomena of the plants being popular in California becoming popular in the PNW.

Unfortunately people grow what they are sold and most are not willing to look further than the nearest Home Depot. At the same time, the nurseries / garden centers often sell only limited "popular" plants, which are only popular because they are being sold, etc. Every yard in my area has crape myrtles, hollies, knockout roses and the other boring plants. Well, crape myrtles are not that boring, but I am tired seeing them in every yard. A nursery "specialist" once told me they did not have any lilacs because they did not grow well in NC. Well, I ordered one online and it ended up being one of my favorite plants in my garden.

Yes we have more humidity in the summer but still may have droughts that last 2-3 weeks with the temperatures around 95 degrees, so I would say our summers are probably more intense than in PNW. And yet I grow my sweet olives in full sun and only watered them the very first summer when they were bare sticks less than a foot in height. Still no summer stress. During the winter, after very extreme freezes, there may be a very slight dieback on the new soft branches and leaves, but they recover just fine and overall the plants require zero care for me. They are very tough plants.

Lilacs are one of the common plants that grow well in the PNW.

Although their leaves can look sun baked by the middle of July, if it gets direct sun and the plant is not kept well watered.

The reason for that may have something to do with the Hulda Klager lilac gardens, which many people from south of Seattle have visited at some time. I imagine that has done a great deal to popularize lilacs in this region. She originally came from Wisconsin, where lilacs are also very popular and grow well (colder climate with very lush green summers).

For those in other parts of the U.S. who may not know, "sweet olive" is a name used in the South to refer to osmanthus.

I don't think anyone on the West Coast will refer to it as "sweet olive", a name more likely to make them think of some sort of sweet tasting edible olive tree.

(real olive trees don't grow in much of the South because of colder winter temperatures, or are more difficult to grow because of the summer rain and poorly draining soil)

Olympia, WA can also have 2 or 3 weeks in July of 95 degree daytime temperatures (more like days ranging between 90 to 95), so may not be so dissimilar to the South in that respect. Perhaps the sun might be a little more intense without the moisture and clouds in the sky to help diffuse some of the light. Or perhaps the sun is more likely to bake the plant when the air is more dry and not very high in humidity. I am not sure.

I can try to describe the smell. The smell feels very "fatty" like coconut. But it's kind of a light soft apricot or peach smell, leaning more towards peach. It smells kind of like peach tea, might be the most accurate description. And it smells sweet. Almost half on the verge of being edible, rather than just a normal flower smell.

Most people would not pick up on this part but there is just the tiniest little nuance in the fragrance that smells maybe a little bit reminiscent of leather, or brown acorns, or even maybe just the tiniest little bit like the "brown" part of the smell in cured tobacco, which helps add just a tiny bit of "depth" to the fragrance.

It's kind of "floral", but I would say it smells less on the "fresh and sharp laundry detergent" side than lilac. It smells like it could be distantly related to lilac, but if you pay close attention you can almost pick up just a tiny bit of olive smell in the fragrance (which should not be surprising since they're related).

Overall, I would say that if you mixed peach tea with honey, it would smell similar to osmanthus. To me it seems the strength of the smell from these few small flowers is between faintly weak and medium in strength. Though probably if the bush gets big enough and has enough flowers, the smell can waft further.

" But it's interesting they are virtually unheard of in the Pacific Northwest. "

Osmanthus fragrans may not be very common in the PNW but other Osmanthus species most certainly are!! In fact, there are 5 different Osmanthus listed on the Great Plant Picks website, which is a regional compilation of fully hardy, reliable and very gardenworthy plants for this area. And virtually all produce highly fragrant flowers, some types more readily than others.

I'd also question that Poet's jasmine (Jasminum grandiflorum) is more cold tolerant than other varieties (like star, hardy or winter jasmine).......it most certainly is not!! It is not even very frost tolerant.

I have lived and worked in this area all my life and several decades in the nursery trade as well as a landscape designer. I am not sure your assessment of growing conditions in Olympia are that much more beneficent than they are here in the central Sound area. I rarely even get a hard frost and summer temps above the mid 80's are rare.

When I mentioned "Poet's jasmine", I was referring to Jasminum officinale.

Jasminum grandiflorum is not going to survive in zone 8 in the PNW.

@socalnolympia The lack of scent may be specific to the variety you are growing. I remember reading that Fudingzhu is not particularly fragrant. Because Osmanthus Fragrans in general may be the strongest fragrant plant that I know of.

My 2nd variety of Osmanthus is displaying the first flush in the season right now. The first variety was fully blooming 2-3 weeks ago. I like that they are 2-3 weeks apart so I can enjoy their continuous fragrance

Sabut.. that looks nice. Did you have to wait long before your yellow osmanthus plant had its first bloom?

Osmanthus smells like those tiny primroses found in spring to my nose. The fragrance also reminds me of freesia. I'm in Portland and have several osmanthus plants, though they are mostly grown in pots because I don't have room. I have Fodingzhu and Beni Kin Mokusei in the ground, young plants but they all seem to be doing well.

sabut, do you know what variety of osmanthus you have?

Beautiful flowers.

Thanks sabut. I thought it was a thunbergii cultivar at first. I do have Tianxiang Taige. Yours look very nice!

Funny story about my O. thunbergii. It was one of the first things I planted in my new garden 25+ years ago. Grew into 15’ tree. Never bloomed. Finally, a couple of years ago, for whatever reason, it bloomed heavily. SO excited only to find - no fragrance. Arghhh.

I did have an O. aurantiacus for a few years before a bad winter killed it, and the fragrance was amazing