Tea Olive Shrub — photo: Laitr Keiows, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Tea Olive Shrub — photo: Laitr Keiows, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Bushes & Accent Shrubs

Tea Olive Shrub

Zones 8a–10bLive Plant
$8.00
$11.00
$8.00
(-27%)

Tea olive scents an entire yard with apricot-sweet fragrance in fall and spring while working year-round as a dense evergreen screen.
Tea Olive Shrub

Pot Size: 6" Starter Pot
Quantity
Tea Olive Shrub — photo: Laitr Keiows, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Bushes & Accent Shrubs

Tea Olive Shrub

$11.00 $8.00
Tea Olive Shrub — photo: Laitr Keiows, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Bushes & Accent Shrubs

Tea Olive Shrub

$11.00 $8.00
Pot Size: 6" Starter Pot
Description

Tea olive, or sweet olive, is a broadleaf evergreen with small, inconspicuous cream flowers that carry an extraordinary fragrance across long distances. It grows into a large shrub or small tree and takes shearing well, which makes it equally useful as a specimen by a walkway or as an informal privacy hedge. Slow and steady, it is long-lived and remarkably trouble-free in the South. Shipped in a 6" Starter Pot, well-rooted from our Lineville, Alabama nursery.

Specifications
  • Mature size: 10-20 ft tall, 8-12 ft wide
  • Grows best: Outdoors - Hardiness USDA 8-10
  • Pet safety: Non-toxic to cats and dogs
  • Sourcing: Nursery-grown by Wade Greens; ships healthy from our Lineville, Alabama nursery to the lower 48 states.
Care Instructions
  • Light: Full sun to part shade
  • Water: Moderate; drought tolerant once established
  • Soil: Well-drained, slightly acidic soil of average fertility.
  • Feeding: Feed once in spring with a balanced slow-release fertilizer.
Growing Zone

Hardy in zones 8a–10b. Outside that range it can still be grown in a container and overwintered indoors.

Full colour is zones 8a–10b, where this plant is hardy in the ground. Lower 48 shown — that's where we ship. 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, via the PRISM Climate Group.

Questions & Answers

How big does it get?
10-20 ft tall, 8-12 ft wide

How much light does it need?
Full sun to part shade

Is it safe for pets?
Non-toxic to cats and dogs

How is it shipped?
Packed to arrive healthy and shipped from our Alabama nursery to the lower 48 states.

Shipping & Returns

Ships to all 48 contiguous states from our farm in Lineville, Alabama.

What it costs

Based on your order total: $12.95 under $35 · $16.95 to $75 · $21.95 to $125 · free over $125.

Ship days

Mondays and Tuesdays only — see below.

Getting it ready

1–3 business days to pot up, water back and pack.

Where we can't go

Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. territories, P.O. boxes, and outside the United States.

Why we only ship Mondays and Tuesdays

A plant in a dark box is on a clock. Shipping early in the week means it reaches you before the weekend instead of sitting in a warehouse from Friday to Monday. It costs us a day or two of lead time and saves a lot of plants.

Practically: an order placed Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or over the weekend goes out the following Monday. We'd rather tell you that now than let you find it in a tracking number.

How long it takes once it leaves

Typical ground transit from Lineville, Alabama after the ship day. Estimates, not guarantees — weather and carrier backlogs happen.

  • 1–2 days Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kentucky
  • 2–3 days The rest of the Southeast and Midwest, Texas, the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast
  • 3–5 days The Plains, the Mountain West and the West Coast

Tracking is emailed the moment your box is scanned.

If something arrives unhappy

A little leaf drop or travel stress is normal and usually sorts itself out within a week or two of settling in. If a plant arrives genuinely damaged, email support@wadegreens.com within 48 hours of delivery with a photo of the plant and the box, and we'll make it right.

Plant Traits

The facts that decide whether it takes root, in the order that matters.

Sunlight

Full Sun (6+ hrs)

Six or more hours of direct sun. With less it stretches toward the light and flowering thins out.

Water

Low

Water to establish, then only through a real dry spell. Too much water kills these faster than too little.

Mature Size

3-6 ft

Where it settles once established. Plan the spacing for this, not for the size it arrives at.

Foliage

Evergreen

Holds working leaves year round, replacing them gradually rather than all at once. Structure through winter.

Works As

Foundation Planting · Border & Bed

Traits

  • Deer ResistantDeer feed by scent first. Aromatic oils, fuzzy leaves and milky sap all read as "not food," so this gets browsed last — though a hungry herd in late winter will test anything.
  • FragrantVolatile oils released by warmth. Scent peaks in afternoon heat or at dusk depending on which pollinator the flower is built for.
  • Drought TolerantDeep or fleshy roots and less leaf surface let it ride out a dry spell once established. Established means a full season in the ground — year one it still needs water.
  • EvergreenLeaves stay on and working through winter, replaced gradually instead of all at once. Year-round structure, and a windbreak where you need one.

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