Cultivating Jiulonggui Osmanthus: A Guide to Greenery and Fragrance

The Osmanthus fragrans ‘Jiulonggui’ is an evergreen shrub or small tree. This plant beautifully blends form and unique floral features. Its distinct personality, mysterious colors, and profound implications have led to its widespread cultivation across China as an ornamental plant.

The Jiulonggui Osmanthus is an excellent variety that integrates greening, beautification, and fragrance, making it suitable for public squares and common green spaces. It can also serve as a high-end potted plant for rooms, hotels, and conference halls.

I. Basic Introduction

The Osmanthus fragrans ‘Jiulonggui’ is an evergreen shrub or small tree. Its leaves are opposite, simple, leathery, and usually glandular on both sides; it has petioles.

The flowers are bisexual, dioecious or male flowers, and bisexual flowers are dioecious, clustered in cymes in the leaf axils, and the terminal small conical inflorescences; there are two bracts, fused at the base; the calyx is bell-shaped, 4-lobed.

The corolla is white or yellowish-white, bell-shaped, cylindrical or jar-shaped, with 4 lobes, arranged like tiles when buds; there are two stamens, attached to the upper part of the corolla tube, and the anther septum often extends into a small point.

The ovary has 2 locules, each with 2 pendulous ovules, the style is longer or shorter than the ovary, the stigma is capitate or 2 shallowly lobed, the sterile pistil is diamond-shaped or conical.

The fruit is a drupe, ellipsoid or oblique ellipsoid, the endocarp is hard or bony, often with one seed; the endosperm is fleshy; the cotyledons are flat; the radicle is upward. The chromosome base number is X=23.

The Jiulonggui Osmanthus blends form and unique floral features. It has a distinct personality, mysterious colors, and profound implications.

II. Morphology and Features

The Jiulonggui Osmanthus is a cultivated variety of Osmanthus. It is an evergreen tall shrub, with a flat spherical crown; the bark is gray, with small, oval, few lenticels; the branches can hang down to the ground.

The standard plant has an average of 2.9 branches, the spring shoots grow an average of 14.5cm, the node number averages 6.4 nodes/branch, the axillary flower number averages 23.4 flowers/branch, each node has a single side of 3 buds and above overlapping rate of 51.6%.

The leaves are dark green, hard leathery, glossy; lanceolate to long elliptic, leaf length 8.5-11.0cm, average 9.3cm, leaf width 2.5-3.7cm, average 3.0cm, length to width ratio about 3.2; the leaf surface is flat.

There are 8-10 pairs of lateral veins, quite neat; the net veins are clearly visible on both sides; the leaf margin has unevenly spaced serrations, the leaf tip is gradually pointed, the leaf base is cuneate or broad cuneate; the petiole is relatively short, averaging 0.6cm long.

The inflorescence is an umbel, flowering from late September to early October; the corolla is obliquely spreading, the lobes are nearly elliptic, slightly incurved, the flower quantity is few to moderate.

The color is milky white, the international color card number is ID (yellow); it has a faint fragrance, and does not bear fruit after flowering.

III. Living Habits

The Nine Dragon Osmanthus grows rapidly and matures early, owing to its strong branching ability and large new shoot growth. It is highly tolerant to moisture and has a strong drought resistance.

It is extremely resilient to pruning, yet it has a lesser resistance to diseases, making it prone to shedding leaves. The Nine Dragon Osmanthus tree sprouts thrice every year, producing spring shoots, summer shoots, and autumn shoots.

Each new shoot starts off as a purple-red color, which can last from 10 days to half a month. During these periods, the tree can serve the role of a color-leaf tree species.

The Nine Dragon Osmanthus starts flowering late, typically after eight years, when it begins to display its silver-white corolla and slender flower stalks that resemble strings of white silver bells hanging from the branches – a sight that is truly adorable.

The most striking biological feature of Nine Dragon Osmanthus is its naturally twisting and turning branches.

According to observations made in 2004, the early spring and late autumn shoots grow straight without any bending; whereas the late spring, summer, and early autumn shoots always grow naturally into a ‘dragon’ shape.

This could probably be due to these three types of tender shoots wilting under direct sunlight at around 30°C, then rebounding upwards as the temperature drops, ultimately forming twisted branches.

IV. Cultivation Method

The Nine Dragons Osmanthus is primarily propagated through cutting, with high-pressure propagation still being carried out in some areas.

Based on the cutting propagation experience in the Chengdu area, during early summer, semi-woody branches are collected and short branches with two leaves per node are cut.

Through fully enclosed or semi-enclosed automated spray management, a survival rate of over 95% can be ensured. By transplanting and nurturing the root system, a survival rate of over 90% can be guaranteed.

The Nine Dragons Osmanthus is mainly used for pot or ground planting. Therefore, regular pruning and timely fertilization to stimulate new twisted growth have become two essential technical links.

Before the buds sprout in spring, select annual branches as cuttings and insert them into plain sand or peat soil. Cover them with plastic film and place them in a shaded area for care. After the beginning of autumn, they can take root.

The best time for cutting is from mid-May to late June (autumn cutting can be from mid-August to late September). Some areas believe that the osmanthus sprouts new shoots in early spring and cutting can be advanced to April.

However, although the woody degree of the cuttings is higher at that time, both the air and ground temperatures are relatively low. After cutting, it is not easy to root, and the cuttings are prone to rot and deteriorate.

For the selection and treatment of cuttings, use the tender shoots that sprout in the current year for cutting. To make the cuttings robust and full, it is necessary to manage the fertilizer and water of the mother tree that provides the cuttings in winter.

Apply 2-3 quick-acting fertilizers to promote branches 1-2 months before collecting cuttings, water should also be paid attention to if the spring is dry.

Practice has shown that full and well-organized branches can easily form root primordia, root quickly, and have a high survival rate, while weak branches are the opposite. The length of the cuttings is 8-10 cm.

The cut cuttings should be quickly placed in a ventilated and cool indoor place and sprayed with misty water in time to moisten the leaf surface and keep the cuttings fresh. When repairing the cuttings, retain the top 5-6 leaves.

To avoid overcrowding during cutting and to prevent the leaves from interlocking, the leaves can be cut in half. According to observations, osmanthus cuttings mostly root on the nodes, and less often between the nodes, so the part inserted into the soil should leave 1-2 nodes.

If the end of the cutting is just on the node, it is more beneficial for rooting. Treating cuttings with naphthalene acetic acid is an effective measure to promote early and fast rooting of osmanthus.

Before cutting, use 500PPM naphthalene acetic acid for quick immersion, which is 7-8 days earlier than untreated.

Insert half of the cutting into the soil, with a plant row spacing of 6×10 cm, and cut 200 plants per square meter. If it is moved out immediately after rooting, that is, the cutting bed is used as an intermediate transition, the density can be increased to make full use of the plastic shed.

The regeneration ability of osmanthus’ nutritional organs is the physiological basis for cutting propagation. Osmanthus cuttings first form root primordia before rooting, and then grow adventitious roots.

The rooting of its cuttings is not in the healing tissue location but concentrated on the nodes, with a few in the cortex between the nodes.

According to observations, each plant produces an average of 19 lateral roots, 13 of which are rooted on the nodes and 6 are rooted in the cortical parts between the nodes.

If there are two nodes rooting, the lower node roots more than the upper node. According to external observations, osmanthus, like other tree species, also forms healing tissue.

The healing tissue is located at the end of the cuttings, forms a tumorous protrusion between the cortex and the xylem, and forms 15-20 days after cutting.

If not treated with naphthalene acetic acid, the formation of healing tissue may be delayed. New roots begin to form about 7-10 days after the healing tissue is formed.

V. Value and Other

Plant Culture

The ‘Nine Dragons Osmanthus’ has a uniquely shaped branch structure. Its arched, twisted branches are entirely natural, with no human intervention, making it a highlight in cultivation for ornamental purposes.

Coupled with its purple-red new shoots and pleasantly fragrant silver-white flower crowns, it becomes an excellent osmanthus variety that integrates greening, beautifying, and fragrant qualities.

It is suitable for ornamental cultivation in public squares and green spaces, and can also serve as high-end potted plants for residences, hotels, and conference halls.