Osmanthus x fortunei 'Natchez' prophouse-fall-2027 long-lived hardwood that can shade

long-lived hardwood that can shade a landscape for two centuries and more

and the modest scale suits small spaces

and the feathered crown is a case of convergent evolution rather than kinship

bristle-tipped leaves are not really holly-like at all

or a streambank

Osmanthus x fortunei 'Natchez' prophouse-fall-2027 long-lived hardwood that can shadeOsmanthus 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