Apricot Echo Tea Olive

Osmanthus fragrans aurantiacus ‘Apricot Echo’ or ‘Yue Yue Hong’

Plant Details

USDA Plant Hardiness Zones: 7b-9b (7a?) Find Your Zone

Plant Type: Evergreen Flowering Shrub or Small Tree

Height at Maturity: 10-15′

Width at Maturity: 6-8′

Spacing: 5-6′ for a solid hedge; 12-14′ or more for space between plants

Growth Habit / Form: Bushy, Upright

Growth Rate: Moderate, Fast

Flower Color: Apricot, Orange to Red in full sun

Flower Size: Tiny, 1/8″ in clusters

Flowering Period: Fall, Winter, Early Spring

Flower Type: Single, in clusters

Fragrant Flowers: Yes, extremely fragrant!

Foliage Color: Dark Green, Deep Burgundy new growth

Fragrant Foliage: No

Berries: No

Berry Color: NA

Sun Needs: Full to Mostly Sun, Morning Sun With Afternoon Shade, Morning Shade with Afternoon Sun

Water Needs: Average, Very Low when established

Soil Type: Clay (Amended), Loam, Sandy, Silty

Soil Moisture / Drainage: Well Drained Moist to Dry when established

Soil pH: 5.5 – 7.5 (Acid to Slightly Acid)

Maintenance / Care: Average to Low

Attracts: Visual Attention

Resistances: Deer, Disease, Drought, Dry Soil, Heat, Insect

Description

A new reblooming Osmanthus aurianticus that produces abundant clusters of wonderfully fragrant apricot color blossoms, the Apricot Echo Tea Olive begins blooming in fall continuing through winter and early spring! After flowering the color show continues in spring as the new leaves emerge a deep burgundy almost purple maturing to deep green by summer. Evergreen leaves are larger than the species. No need to plant this one near windows as one plant can fill a back or front yard with sweet aroma! That said, of course you can plant one near a window or outdoor living spaces where the fragrance and pretty flowers can be enjoyed from closer up:-)

Interesting Note: In full sun the flowers of Apricot Echo will be deeper shades of orange to orange-red. Light to moderate shade produces soft orange flowers.

Landscape & Garden Uses

With an upright rounded form 10 to 15 feet tall and 6 to 8 feet wide (depending on pruning), the Apricot Echo Tea Olive can be grown as a large shrub or small tree. As a shrub its dense foliage makes it ideal for use as an evergreen hedge or privacy screen, as a background, or to frame corners or fill voids between widely-spaced windows in home foundation plantings. As this tea olive grows taller, which it does rather quickly, lower branches can be removed to form a highly attractive small tree ideal for use as a focal point specimen in sunny to partially shaded landscape borders and home foundation plantings. A fine addition to fragrance gardens, orange theme gardens, cottage gardens, and Asian gardens.

Suggested Spacing: 5 to 6 feet apart for a solid hedge; 14 feet or more apart for space between plants

Note: For our customers who live and garden north of USDA Plant Hardiness Zones 7b, where the Orange Tea Olive is not winter hardy, you’ll be happy to know it can be grown in containers that can be brought indoors during winter and placed back outside when temperatures warm up in spring.

Growing Preferences

The Apricot Echo Tea Olive is very easy to grow in most any moist but well-drained soil of average fertility and full sun to part shade. We suggest at least 4-5 hours of direct sunlight per day or all-day lightly filtered sun for best flowering. As with many other plants, a constantly soggy or wet soil can be problematic. Exceptionally drought tolerant when established. Over decades, we’ve seen no insect or disease problems and deer won’t touch it.

Helpful Articles

Click on a link below to find helpful advice from our experts on how to plant and care for Tea Olive shrubs and trees.

How To Plant A Tea Olive

How To Fertilize A Tea Olive

How To Prune Prune A Tea Olive Shrub Or Tree

Plant Long & Prosper!

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Questions? Contact Us

I grew up with the scent of this & my family used the tiny flowers in desserts. The tree is still small but already has 6 little orange flowers less than a month of planting.————————————————–Thanks for the photo! We are so glad you are pleased and we hope you enjoy your purchase for years to come! Thanks for the kind words and wonderful review! 🙂 Beth Steele | WBG

This plant arrived in great shape and is growing, I have ordered many times from Wilson Bros and have always had a great experience with them. Very satisfied.—————————-Thanks for the kind words and wonderful review! We are so glad you are pleased and we hope you enjoy it for years to come! 🙂 Beth Steele | WBG

I am so excited to see how this smells when it blooms!!!! It came very well packaged and a great price for the size!!————————-Thanks for the awesome review! We are so glad you are pleased and we hope you enjoy it for years to come! 🙂 Beth Steele | WBG

I live very rurally and off road. Delivery by UPS or FedEx is very iffy. The package containing my plant was deposited just inside the cattle guard 5/8 off a mile from my home. The cows found this curious and tossed it around a bit and it got to wait in the hot Texas sun the remainder of the day until I got home.
This is a success story because of the health and vigor of the plant and Wilson Brothers excellent packing. It’s been weeks now and the tea olive is thriving and putting on new growth! Thank you.—————————————————————-Wow! You’re welcome. Thanks for the kind words and wonderful review! We are so glad you are pleased and we hope you enjoy it for years to come! 🙂 Beth Steele | WBG

I received the Osmanthus without a blemish due to the careful packaging. It is healthy and I cannot wait to experience the sweet fragrance of the flowers.————————————————————–We are so glad you are pleased and we hope you enjoy it for years to come! Thanks for the kind words and great review! 🙂 Beth Steele | WBG

I’ve never received plants packaged so carefully, there was not a broken limb, not even a leaf fell off the plants. The root base was well developed. We planted both shrubs immediately and we , including our bees, are looking forward to beautiful fragrant blossoms!—————————————-We are so glad you are pleased and we hope you enjoy them for years to come! Thanks for the kind words and great review! 🙂 Beth Steele | WBG

We had never heard of Tea Olives until we retired to North GA Zone 7b where we can now grow plants that we could never grow at our previous homes. While searching Wilson Bros web site we discovered many varieties of the fragrant flowering evergreen shrubs that we just had to find a place for. Their web site makes it easy to match up a plant’s growing requirements to the perfect yard location and their pictures really help in choosing the perfect color and mature size of every plant. We now have several and each came healthy and moist because of their expert packaging. We are looking forward to the colors and fragrance that each one will add to our yard throughout the seasons. They have such a wide variety of Tea Olives it is impossible to choose just one. Highly recommend.————————————–Thanks for the kind words!! We are so glad you are pleased with your purchase! Thanks for the great review! Beth | WBG 🙂

Nice plant for the time it was shipped. Not too bushy but nice height and plenty of leaves. Very pleased with the root development and should be happy come spring.——————————————-We are so glad you are pleased with your purchase! Thanks for the great review! Beth | WBG 🙂

Tea Olive arrived today and again it was large and healthy. Already planted in its forever home.————————————–Thanks for the kind words! We are so glad you are pleased with your purchase! Thanks for the great review! Beth | WBG 🙂