Sweet olive
Osmanthus × burkwoodii
Clips as tightly as a hedge plant needs to, and asks for almost nothing once its roots are down.
- Type
- Shrub · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Green
- Flower color
- White
- Sunlight
- Sun or partial shade, with the best flowering in sun.
- Watering
- Water it while it establishes; drought-tolerant after that.
- Feeding
- A compost mulch in spring; it rarely needs feeding.
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- April
- Pruning
- Prune once the spring flowers are over; it clips well.
- Mar–Apr Spring Growth
- Apr–Aug Flowering
- Aug–Dec Growing
- Jan–Mar Growing
- Plant spacing
- 9 ft 10 in
- In-row spacing
- 9 ft 10 in
- Between rows
- 12 ft 4 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
- Root system
- Woody and fibrous
- Working depth
- 12–24 in
- Can reach
- 3 ft down where the soil allows
- Spread
- 15–20 ft across, about 1.5–2× the width of the plant
- Shallowest pot
- 20 in of soil
A shallow woody framework with the fine feeding roots in the leaf litter above it. Those feeders are mostly under the outer half of the canopy rather than against the stem, which is where water and feed should go.
The habit is Sweet olive’s own; the figures are what that habit usually comes to at this size, not a measurement of this species. Roots follow the soil either way: a compacted pan, a high water table or heavy clay stops them well short of any of it, and deep open ground lets them go further.
- Generally trouble-free No notable pest or disease problems when grown in the right conditions — one of the easy ones.
Box, Lavender, Roses
Green-leaved shrubs, like this one.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com