{"id":3581,"date":"2022-01-10T07:22:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-10T15:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=3581"},"modified":"2022-01-10T07:22:23","modified_gmt":"2022-01-10T15:22:23","slug":"prickly-olive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/prickly-olive\/","title":{"rendered":"Prickly Olive"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Osmanthus<\/a>For years I have damned Osmanthus heterophyllus or false holly with faint praise–or no praise at all.\u00a0 Two of the prickly evergreen shrubs stand silently in front of the house, and for years I longed to remove them.<\/p>\n

Why have I harbored such thoughts about a pair of innocent shrubs?\u00a0 For one thing, I didn\u2019t choose them.\u00a0 They were already in place when I moved in, along with several shaggy yews and a collection of roses of Sharon that did nothing but self-seed.\u00a0\u00a0 The yews are long gone and the roses of Sharon have been moved, standardized and fussed with for so long that I have developed a grudging respect for them.\u00a0 The osmanthus, on the other hand, languished in limbo for the longest time\u2014not quite annoying enough to remove, but not loveable enough to play up.<\/p>\n

A few years ago my relationship with my osmanthus duo shifted.\u00a0 I began to see the beauty in their variegated, holly-like leaves, which have proved useful in holiday decorating.\u00a0 I standardized their lumpy silhouettes into well-defined tree shapes, a move that also allowed me to plant smaller species at their feet.\u00a0 As the growing seasons passed, I grew more and more impressed by my osmanthus\u2019 tenacity in the face of ambivalence.<\/p>\n

Osmanthus are sometimes known as false holly or tea olive.\u00a0 Both names say something significant about the plants.\u00a0 Like holly, the shrubs and small trees in the osmanthus family are evergreen, often with glossy green leaves.\u00a0 Some species, including mine, sport sharp, holly-like spines on those leaves.\u00a0 That spiny foliage is very efficient at disguising the species\u2019 membership in the olive family\u2014also home to lilac and privet.<\/p>\n

My osmanthus rarely flowers and has never produced fruit, but if it were to do so, the fruits would resemble small olives.\u00a0 \u00a0The familial ties to beautiful, spring-flowering lilac seem improbable until you catch a whiff of the intensely fragrant flowers.\u00a0 Privet, when left unpruned, will also adorn itself with the same intoxicatingly-scented blooms.\u00a0 In the case of false holly, the Latin genus name is a great descriptor, deriving from the word \u201cosme,\u201d meaning \u201cfragrant,\u201d and \u201canthos,\u201d meaning \u201cflower.\u201d<\/p>\n

I used to tell people that it is hard to love a plant that begs to be pruned, then turns around and rewards your labors by shredding garden gloves and scratching skin.\u00a0 Over the years of living with my osmanthus, I came to realize my own horticultural hypocrisy.\u00a0 After all, I adore roses, which arm themselves with enough prickles to shame a porcupine and require much more frequent pruning.<\/p>\n

My variegated Osmanthus heterophyllus are descended from plants that originated in Japan and Taiwan.\u00a0 Each prickly leaf is several inches long, with cream splashes on a background of dark, glossy green.\u00a0 Left to their own devices, the twin shrubs might grow as tall as 10 feet, but I keep them pruned to about 6 feet tall.\u00a0 Configured in standard or tree-form, the bottom two thirds of the trunks are left exposed.\u00a0 This barbering makes the plants more graceful in my medium-size suburban garden.<\/p>\n

At one time I thought of digging up the two osmanthus and transplanting them into box-shaped planters.\u00a0 Standardized and boxed they might have marked the base of my front walk or possibly flanked the front steps, adding a nice formal touch.\u00a0 Because I am a lazy gardener, the boxing has never happened.\u00a0 It is probably a good thing, as that kind of radical upheaval would probably have resulted in damage to both the osmanthus and my back muscles.<\/p>\n

Despite my rocky relationship with two osmanthus, I have come to respect them.\u00a0 Like all broadleaf evergreens, they add structure and color to the garden, especially in deepest, darkest winter when not even the hellebores dare to put out flowers.\u00a0 Osmanthus thrive in sun to partial shade and are absolutely undemanding.\u00a0 The spiny sprigs are perfect partners for true holly in winter decorations and arrangements.<\/p>\n

Osmanthus heterophyllus is hardy to USDA Zone 7, which means the shrubs can withstand annual extreme minimum temperatures down to 0 degrees Fahrenheit.\u00a0 Other osmanthus species are more tender, including the intensely fragrant Osmanthus delavayi and Osmanthus fragrans, which I grow in a container indoors.\u00a0 Both bloom in spring and the scent of the former won the praise of garden writer Vita Sackville-West, who installed it in her celebrated garden at Sissinghurst.<\/p>\n

Online and catalog vendors sell a number of false holly varieties.\u00a0 Mine is most likely \u2018Variegatus.\u2019\u00a0 Lovers of colorful foliage might also try \u2018Goshiki,\u2019 with spiny leaves splashed and flecked with green, gold and cream, along with pink early in the season.\u00a0 \u2018Purpureus\u2019 features purple-tinged new growth that matures to green.\u00a0 In the spring, the better garden centers may offer one or more Osmanthus heterophyllus varieties.\u00a0 If you want to work ahead and order online, try ForestFarm, 14643 Watergap Rd, Williams, OR 97544;\u00a0 (541) 846-7269; www.forestfarm.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Print catalog available.<\/p>\n

True evergreen lovers will probably take to osmanthus quicker than I did.\u00a0 For everyone else, I recommend giving the shrub a chance.\u00a0 It may stick you with prickles when you prune, but it is also likely to grow on you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For years I have damned Osmanthus heterophyllus or false holly with faint praise–or no praise at all.\u00a0 Two of the prickly evergreen shrubs stand silently in front of the house, and for years I longed to remove them. Why have I harbored such thoughts about a pair of innocent shrubs?\u00a0 For one thing, I didn\u2019t … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2,3,5],"tags":[1778,1071,2211,2637,2638,1955,1077,2636,2639,976],"class_list":["post-3581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","category-winter","tag-evergreens","tag-false-holly","tag-holiday-decorations","tag-holly-look-alikes","tag-olaceae-family","tag-olive-family","tag-osmanthus-heterophyllus","tag-prickly-olive","tag-variegated-shrubs","tag-winter-interest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3581"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3583,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3581\/revisions\/3583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}