ditto what rhizo says. in fact, my o. americanus plant is not nearly as robust as the o. fragrans, appearing to struggle more. fragrance is much less intense, perhaps due to the smaller number of flowers. it is not noticeable to me unless i position my nose close to the flowers. if you are concerned about naturalization of the asian species, i doubt you will ever see that.

Thanks Jeff. Actually you hit the nail on the head. I bought this house 3 years ago and it already had 4 established bushes on the east side. They would be about 6 feet tall, right now, had I not cut them back to 4 feet last fall. Ever since, they aint been looking too hot. Showing signs of iron sclorosis, I think (yellowing with green veins), so I threw down a small carton of epsom salt. All are greening up now but one (the southern most in the row)but, none are budding yet. Musaboru, I am also a little disappointed with the osmanthus that i just bought. They smell great but, only faintly and only when I stick the flowers up my nose. I have been searching for these all around my area and cant find any let alone any with powerful fragrance

Awww, it's not fair to compare gnarly nursery plants to a properly pruned and cultured specimen. And please try to smell some when the flowers are at their peak. I spent $25 on one for our yard and we rent. That's 5x what I've spent on any other plant I won't be keeping just because the fragrance was so amazing. I went to WM in Jan. to see if they had Caladium bulbs yet and smelled something so wonderful, I had to track it down. It was a single, 2-ft. tall little shrub with barely noticeable white flowers. No way, but yep, no other flowers in the whole area. It was this baby shrub perfuming the whole (outside) area of the store. Fragrant, those leaves look big. How do they compare to your "sure" shrub? Similar amounts of light? Both potted? The soil in that pot looks really dense, without any tiny air pockets, mostly tiny closely-lodged particles. It looks like it's starting to struggle, going by the yellowing leaves at the bottom, and the fallen ones in the pot. If you don't want to repot (or in conjunction with repotting if you do want to,) you might try laying some banana peels on the surface of the soil, or for quicker impact, mixing banana peels in a blender with water and using that to water your shrub. Banana peels can inspire many "shy" plants to bloom, whether in a pot or not.

I bought a one-gallon Fudingzu from Nurcar this spring. It grew right along over the summer. It responds to misting with new growth. Repeat, it responds to misting with new growth. I moved it to the front porch while my deck was being renovated, and neglected the watering. Leaves turned brown at the tips. Moved it back, resumed watering (and misting with the hose several times a day). It resumed new growth after several weeks. Left it outside til temps were threatening to go below 20, then moved it into the garage, which stays app 10 degrees warmer. Again, let it get too dry, since it was cold and dark out there. With the recent dip in temperature, finally brought it indoors to a sunny west window. Dropped a lot of leaves (too dry), but not all. It still has a nice form and plenty of leaves. Within a couple of weeks, set literally dozens and dozens and more dozens of buds, which are now opening. Butterfly's advice to flush salts out of the pot is very good. Osmanthus are said to react poorly to buildup of fertilizer salts. If you want new growth on your Osmanthus, please follow Mike's and my advice: mist the branches. Outdoors, you can just mist with the hose several times a day, til the branches drip. Indoors, maybe you can water it in the shower or tub, spraying the branches all over. I'm not sure why misting works so well with Osmanthus (I do it to my other potted plants outdoors as well). Maybe the humidity in its native habitat. But make sure, this really does work.