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Fragrant tea olive--zone 6b?

13 years ago

Does anyone have personal experience growing a fragrant tea olive in zone 6b or colder? According to different sources, I'm in growing zone 6b or 7. Different vendors say their fragrant tea olive tree/large shrub will grow well in zones 7-10, 7b-10, and 9-11...a lot of differing information.

What is your personal experience with this evergreen tree?

Thanks!

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Comments (4)

subtropix
13 years ago
Planted against a building, I bet it would make it. I live in a zone that went from 6b to zone 7 recently (due to changing horticultural maps). I have not tried Osmanthus (sweet olive) yet, but I have no problem overwintering plants said to be cold hardy to roughly the same zone (Fatsia, Camellia, M. grandiflora, Japanese podocarpus, windmill palms, black bamboo, even loquats). Go for it, especially if you have a protected location.
Embothrium
13 years ago
Plantings of multiple above head height tea olives at University of Washington damaged (all previous year's shoots burnt and defoliated, leaving them poking oddly above the shell of older leaves like quills) last winter because it got down to maybe 15 degrees F. there. Here on Camano Island it was probably 10 degrees colder; small fatsia were killed to the ground beneath low-branching conifers, small windmill palms killed completely; during coldest winters (such as 1990) loquats burn back badly even in Seattle.

An older planting of tea olive at the Seattle arboretum has persisted for years, without any dramatic damage that I have had occasion to observe myself. Must be a more hardy introduction than usual, they are even growing on a slick clay bank where hardiness would be expected to be less than on an open-textured soil.

Lowland western WA is USDA 8.
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jmac_2008
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for the helpful inputs. Sounds like I'm in a similar situation as njoasis going from zone 6b to 7. Your success overwintering other zone 7 plants is encouraging.

Thanks bboy for the details on the different sets of tea olives. The low average temperatures for the coldest months here (December and January) are 24F and 23F, which suggests a tea olive could survive. But, freak cold snaps can wipe out plants that normally do well. We have clay soil here too.
'Consitor emptor,' for sure.
jmac_2008
Original Author
13 years ago
Sorry, that was supposed to be 'Caveat consitor.' Let the planter beware!

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