Osmanthus fragrans, fresh seeds of Sweet Olive

Osmanthus fragrans seeds

Osmanthus fragrans belongs to the family of the Oleaceae. It is native to East Asia. It is also known as Sweet Olive. The plant has this nickname because it has a very pleasant odor. It smells like apricot and peach. For that reason it is likely planted in parks as an ornamental plant. Just one single tree fills the air around with the nice odor. Sometimes the odor of more than one tree is a little obtrusive.
O. fragrans grows as a tree and gets up to 3 m high, sometimes even 5 m. The leaves are oblong- elliptic and dark green and glossy. The leaves reach a length of 7 to 15 cm and are
2, 6 to 4, 5 cm wide. The leaves are quite stable. The flowers are very small whitish, yellowish or slightly orange. The corolla leaves that get not more than 4 mm long are grown together as a tube. They are organized in inflorescences of several flowers. O. fragrans blooms in spring and in summer. The flowers are used to aromatize tea.
The fruit of O. fragrans is blue or black. They get up to 2 cm long.
O. fragrans can be used to produce a very expensive perfume. It can also be used as a repellent against insects.
O. fragrans is winter hardy. It can stand temperatures down to minus 7 °C.

Cultivation
The seeds from O. fragrans have to be planted 1 cm deep into the substrate. Then it has to be put into the fridge for 2 to 3 month. The temperature should be 2 to 5 °C in the fridge. During stratification the substrate has to be kept moist. After this stratification, O. fragrans should be placed sunny and warm (20 to 23°C). The substrate should be still kept moist. Germination occurs reliable.