Osmanthus x fortunei 'Natchez' prophouse-fall-2027 transformed into a fragrant shrub

transformed into a fragrant shrub

with arching branches

The shrub is the primary host of the spicebush swallowtail

and the modest scale suits small spaces

Either way you get narrow gray-green blades

Osmanthus x fortunei 'Natchez' prophouse-fall-2027 transformed into a fragrant shrubOsmanthus x fortunei 'Natchez' is a hybrid that takes the best of two parents. The cross joins Osmanthus fragrans, the sweet olive treasured for its perfume, with Osmanthus heterophyllus, the false holly valued for tough, spiny, evergreen foliage, and 'Natchez' inherits both gifts: a dense, glossy, holly leaved frame and a flood of fragrance in fall. The hybrid takes the name of the old river town of Natchez, Mississippi, a nod to the Deep South