I bought on eBay some seeds for a shrub called tea olive, or osmanthus
fragrans.

I've been growing this shrub for many years. It has a very small
cluster-bloom with a marvelous fragrance.

But in all my experience I've never seen seeds. The seeds I got are about
the size and shape of small orange seeds, and they are covered with a husk.

Why wouldn't I have seen these seeds? How do I get my plants to produce
them?

In message t, Borked
Pseudo Mailed writes
I'm not sure about this plant, but some plants need a special insect to
polinate them. I think Agave tequila plant is one like that. Maybe you
try to polinate it with a small paintbrush.


Other possibilities are that it's self-incompatible (like many apples),
or that it's a male plant of a dioecious species, or that the climate
isn't suitable to ripen the seeds, or that it's a sterile clone. Like
you, I don't know whether any of these applies.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley

On Tue, 19 Sep 2006 22:11:06 GMT, "Ray"
wrote:

I bought on eBay some seeds for a shrub called tea olive, or osmanthus
fragrans.

I've been growing this shrub for many years. It has a very small
cluster-bloom with a marvelous fragrance.

But in all my experience I've never seen seeds. The seeds I got are about
the size and shape of small orange seeds, and they are covered with a husk.

Why wouldn't I have seen these seeds? How do I get my plants to produce
them?

I was curious, so I looked this up and found some info. It
seems that it rarely produces fruit/seeds. Propagation is
normally done via cuttings. If seeds are used, germination
is said to be 2 years. Ugh! It originally came from the Far
East (China, S Japan...) and is not native. Only one
osmanthus is listed as being native to the US.

If your email address is good and you can accept an
attachment, I can email some images with some of the info I
found. There wasn't a whole lot and it is a bit dated
though...

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b
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