Butterfly4u... I feel like I have known you for a very long time...Boy does time fly! Thank you for your kind comments and stopping by...You do know that your suggestions and comments always have meant a lot to me.. Much apprciated.. I was reading some of your older posts, and I even think you wrote one on olives too, or gardenias also.. I will be commenting soon..Your plants are just beautiful too! Yes, it is the same one as last year...It grew big didn't it?!..I love this tree..I also have 3 others doing just as nice..I bought them in 2 inch pots, and now they are so much bigger since the spring..I will post those pics soon..I hope you see them.. Because of all the gardenia information you have dispensed here, mine are also doing fanatastic! I never got that red olive....They are so expensive and I was told they do not bloom as much.. I never put that any in the pop up..This particular one has been going in my garage at night when temps drop to the 30's..Then it has stayed outdoors everyday since..It seems to thrive in the cold....I also place it against the pop up so that it faces the sun and it warms that area up very nicely..Cold at night, warm by day and fresh rain...Loves it..;-) So nice to spend this time with you..:-) Moonwolf....I have seen your new aquired plants..Just beautiful..They should do very well with your love and caring attitude to back them up...Nice.. Kemistry....Thank you so much....I am suprised you couldn't keep them happy inside for the winter...They are not hard to grow indoors for the winter.. If you should decide to get one again, I , as well as everyone else would be happy to help you.. MIke

I have lots of these. At first I planted them all in the shade, or in partial shade (that's what the gardening books said to do). I noticed the best ones were the ones in the most sun, so I put 33 of them around my rose garden to enclose it. The rose garden gets full sun and these sweet olives really took off. You can really tell a difference between the ones that get enough sun and the ones that don't. We are talking 4 times the difference in size just based on sun. So maybe that's the answer, but it's probably not the answer you wanted. They WILL survive in the shade, as you well know, but they have less leaves and less blooms and almost no growth. My soil is really acidic, but I don't know what kind of soil they prefer. Clematis, for example, prefer alkaline soil but mine are doing great.

Aurantiacus Osmanthus don't bloom until they're 4-6' tall according to everything I have read, i.e. mature leaves without serrations. So you may be waiting a while I hate to say. Now I don't know if grafting would make it "mature" at an earlier age like Michelia Champaca or Alba etc... but I've not yet heard of an Orange Osmanthus blooming at a young age. If you can find an ever blooming type such as ‘Fudingzhu’ (logees has them) they will bloom when they are young. The "ever blooming" varieties are yellow/white, and they are great, mine was small last year and bloomed all winter, and is starting up again now that it's out in the sun. There are 4 kinds of Osmanthus, Luteus, Albus, Aurantiacus, and Asiaticus. Some more information: http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1901624/osmanthus-fragrans-papers Also, I wouldn't stress about your leaves, if they're green they're fine! If you don't have leaves then I'd worry! My two Osmanthus Aurantiacus survived our horrific East Coast Z7 winter last year, killed them back till about a foot off the ground; but none-the-less survived. The delicate Semperflorens/Asiaticus/sijigui varieties like fodingzhu are much less hardy, but that's the one you want.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1912618/osmanthus-fragrans-leaf-tip-turned-brown Too much water or too little water causes it. Likes well drained, acidic soil.