The Osmanthus fragrans ‘Yu ling long’ is a perennial shrub to small tree, with an elliptical crown and strong upright branching. It grows well and is an old variety of osmanthus native to the East China region.
Named for its dense branches, narrow leaves, and thick flowers, its delicate and elegant form is notable. The ‘Yu ling long’ is a long-day plant that thrives in abundant sunlight and fertile, well-drained soil.
The tree has a good shape, produces many flowers, and has a strong fragrance, making it highly ornamental. It is an optimal tree species for garden cultivation and flower harvesting. Its dense branches, narrow leaves, and thick flowers also make it excellent material for potted plants.
The ‘Yu ling long’ is a perennial tall shrub to small tree, with an elliptical crown, strong upright branching, and good growth.
Standard plants have an average of 5.8 branches, with average spring shoot lengths of 16.4 cm, an average of 7.0 nodes per shoot, and an average of 32.4 axil flowers per shoot. The leaves are deep green, thick, leathery, and glossy.
They are lanceolate to long elliptical, with an average length of 7.0 cm and a width of 2.5 cm, a length-width ratio of about 2.8, and entire margins.
The leaf margins are slightly wavy and notably curled, with 6-7 pairs of lateral veins, visible reticulate veins on both surfaces, short to long pointed leaf tips, a wedge-shaped base, and an average petiole length of 0.8 cm.
The flowers have a nearly flat corolla, and the corolla lobes are ovate to obovate. The flower color ranges from lemon yellow to milky white, with an international color card number of 1D (yellowish white).
The flowers are fragrant but do not produce fruit. The flowering period is from late September to early October.
The ‘Yu ling long’ is a long-day plant that enjoys growing in abundant sunlight, fertile, well-drained soil, and slightly acidic soil with a pH of 5.5-6.5. It does not tolerate alkaline soil, standing water, or coal smoke.
It has strong branching power, and the length and thickness of new shoots do not differ greatly, making it easy to form a dense crown. It has many nodes, especially axillary nodes, which cause the flowers to cluster in one place when blooming, creating a “flower cover leaf” phenomenon.
This variety begins flowering at an early age, with 2-year-old cuttings able to flower at their tips, and 4-year-old seedlings quickly entering a stage of full flowering and production.
Osmanthus trees are often planted in the ground in early spring. The planting site should be chosen for its abundant sunlight, good drainage, and deep soil. Before planting, dig a large hole and apply plenty of organic fertilizer, adding some wood ash.
The seedlings should be transplanted with a soil ball to aid survival. After planting, water thoroughly. After survival, apply a liquid fertilizer once. During July-August, apply water fertilizer once or twice.
Before winter, apply well-rotted compost. Afterwards, apply a quick-acting nitrogen fertilizer once in late March each year, a quick-acting phosphorus and potassium fertilizer in July, and an organic fertilizer once in October.
After each fertilization, timely irrigation and weeding should be carried out. Regular attention should be paid to the timely prevention and treatment of pests and diseases, which will accelerate growth and ensure abundant flowering and fragrance each year.
The common method of propagation for ‘Jade Linglong’ is through cuttings. During the early summer, either longer cuttings with two sections and four leaves (which root faster) or shorter cuttings with a single section and two leaves (which root slower) can be used.
Both have high survival rates. Due to the plant’s short stature and tight branching, it’s worth considering dense planting to increase yield.
Before spring budding, select year-old branches as cuttings and insert them into plain sand or peat soil. Cover them with a plastic film and place them in a shaded location for care. After the start of fall, they can start to root.
The optimal period for cuttings is from mid-May to late June (for autumn cuttings, it’s from mid-August to late September). Some regions believe that osmanthus sprouts new shoots in early spring, and cuttings can be taken as early as April.
However, practice has shown that although the cuttings’ woody degree is higher at this time, the air and soil temperatures are lower, making it difficult for the cuttings to root and prone to rotting.
Selection and treatment of cuttings: Use the tender shoots sprouted in the same year for cuttings. To ensure that the cuttings are robust and full, the mother tree from which the cuttings are taken must be managed with fertilizer and water in winter.
Apply quick-acting fertilizer 2-3 times 1-2 months before taking cuttings. During dry spells in the spring, watering should be done.
Practice shows that full and well-structured branches easily form root primordia, root quickly, and have a high survival rate, while weak branches have the opposite effect. The length of the cuttings should be 8-10 cm.
The cuttings should be quickly placed in a cool, ventilated indoor location and timely misted with water to keep them fresh. When preparing the cuttings, keep 5-6 top leaves. To avoid overcrowding during insertion and prevent leaf overlap, leaves can be cut in half.
Observations show that osmanthus cuttings mostly root at the nodes, less so in the internodes. Thus, the part inserted into the soil should have 1-2 nodes, and if the cutting’s end is just at a node, it is more conducive to rooting.
Treating cuttings with naphthaleneacetic acid is an effective measure to promote early and fast rooting of osmanthus. Cuttings should be dipped in 500PPM naphthaleneacetic acid before insertion, which allows them to root 7-8 days earlier than untreated ones.
Insert the cuttings into the soil to a depth of half their length, with a row spacing of 6×10 cm, and 200 cuttings per square meter. If the cuttings are moved out after rooting, treating the cutting bed as a temporary site, the density can be increased to make full use of the plastic shed.
The regenerative ability of osmanthus’s nutritional organs is the physiological basis for propagation through cuttings. Before rooting, osmanthus cuttings first form root primordia and then grow adventitious roots.
The rooting of cuttings occurs mainly at the nodes, with a few in the cortical parts of the internodes. Observations show that, on average, each plant produces 19 lateral roots, with 13 rooting at the nodes and 6 rooting in the cortical areas of the internodes.
If two nodes root, the lower node tends to root more than the upper node. Based on outward observation, like other tree species, osmanthus also forms callus tissue. The callus tissue is located at the end of the cutting, forms a nodular protrusion between the cortex and the xylem, and forms 15-20 days after insertion.
If not treated with naphthaleneacetic acid, the formation of callus tissue may be delayed. Approximately 7-10 days after the callus tissue stabilizes, new roots start to grow.
Osmanthus is prone to diseases such as anthracnose, brown spot disease, gray paste disease, leaf spot disease, algal spot disease, sooty mold, and pests such as black thorn mealybug, scale insects, bagworms, thorn moths, leafhoppers, and osmanthus leafhoppers. Timely spraying of pesticides for control is necessary.
Brown Spot Disease
Brown spot disease is caused by fungi and harms the leaves. Initial symptoms are small yellow spots that develop into near-circular or irregular spots, yellow-brown to gray-brown in color.
The diameter of these spots is 2-10 mm, surrounded by a yellow halo. Many black fungal spots are scattered on the front of the leaf, which are the conidial stems and conidia of the fungus.
When spots connect into large spots, it causes leaf death, but it does not extend to the veins. The disease spreads through wind, rain, and watering, grows from March, and is prevalent from April to October, after which the situation improves.
High temperature and humidity favor the disease, with old leaves being more affected. Generally, Dan Gui has stronger resistance to this disease than Jin Gui and Yin Gui.
Prevention Methods:
During winter, clean up and destroy diseased plant residues and leaves promptly. Prune diseased leaves from introduced seedlings.
Before seedlings from heavily infected areas are moved, spray 1000 times diluted solution of potassium permanganate. Refer to the treatment of osmanthus leaf blight for pesticide prevention.
Strengthen water and fertilizer management, add more humus and potash fertilizers to enhance plant resistance to diseases. The environment should be well-ventilated and well-lit. During the disease period, avoid spraying and rain. Prevent waterlogging of the soil.
Timely control of pests such as scale insects and aphids. Before moving indoors in late autumn, spray twice with a 500 times diluted solution of 70% dimanganese zinc wettable powder.
If an outbreak occurs, use a 500 times diluted solution of 90% carbendazim or 50% mancozeb. During the disease period, spray with 1:2:100-200 times lime Bordeaux mixture, or 1000-1500 times diluted solution of 50% fenpropathrin wettable powder, or 500 times diluted solution of quinazoline, or 600 times diluted solution of 50% dimanganese ammonium.
Leaf Blight
Leaf blight, also known as leaf spot disease, is a significant disease of osmanthus. It often starts from the leaf tip or edge, with small spots being pale brown, later expanding into circular or irregular shapes.
The spots sometimes curl and crack, and can merge, covering 1/3 to 1/2 of the leaf, appearing gray-brown, with green edges. In the later stages, small black spots appear on the diseased spots.
The disease can occur throughout the year, causing large areas of leaves to dry up. It is more severe during high temperature and humidity, poor ventilation, and weak plant growth, generally occurring from July to November, and spreads through wind and rain.
Prevention Methods:
In late autumn and early winter, thoroughly clean up and destroy or deeply bury diseased leaves to reduce overwintering pathogens and effectively suppress the occurrence of the disease in the following year.
For transplanted seedlings or introduced seedlings, remove diseased leaves and destroy, if necessary, spray the seedlings with a 500 times diluted solution of 50% mancozeb wettable powder or a 0.1% solution of potassium permanganate for disinfection before moving.
Strengthen management, add more phosphorus and potassium fertilizers, frequently loosen the soil and weed, prevent soil crusting or waterlogging. In high temperature and dry weather, water and spray in time to increase the disease resistance of osmanthus plants.
In areas with severe disease, start spraying from late June, every half a month spray once with a 500 times diluted solution of 70% dimanganese zinc wettable powder, or 800 times diluted solution of 75% carbendazim wettable powder, or 1:2:100 times lime Bordeaux mixture.
Continue this for 3-4 times, the prevention effect is good. You can also spray with a 5000 times diluted solution of 25% propiconazole emulsion, with a 48-day interval.
Sooty Mold
This disease typically occurs in hot, humid seasons and environments that are stuffy, damp, hidden, and poorly ventilated. The main symptom is a layer of gray-black powdery substance of varying shades on the leaves and dry branches, sometimes even forming a black film.
The cause is due to aphids, scale insects, mealybugs, and other insects sucking on the osmanthus, whose secreted excretions attract various parasitic fungi that induce the sooty mold, appearing black and gray.
The gray-black soot mold not only affects the ornamental value of the osmanthus plant but also impacts the photosynthesis of the leaves, leading to poor plant growth and causing diseased leaves to yellow, wilt, and fall prematurely.
Prevention methods:
Iron Chlorosis
This disease is iron deficiency chlorosis. Due to imbalanced pH and alkaline soil, or incomplete cleaning of building residues in the soil, iron in the soil exists as insoluble iron hydroxide, which cannot be absorbed by the osmanthus roots, leading to iron deficiency in osmanthus.
If it’s a mild deficiency, young leaves between the veins will lose their green color and turn yellow, but the vein tissues remain green.
If it’s a severe deficiency, all new and old leaves turn yellow, young leaves slowly stop growing, some old leaves develop yellow-brown spots, and the plant cannot grow and bloom normally, seriously affecting its ornamental effect and flower harvest.
Prevention methods:
Dry rot disease
This primarily occurs in larger, newly transplanted osmanthus plants. In garden landscaping or large-scale osmanthus transplantation, due to reasons such as accidental injuries during digging, scratches during long-distance transportation, laceration during lifting, and accidental impact, the bark of the osmanthus plant’s main stem or large branches may be severely damaged, or large chunks of bark may be peeled off.
If these are not promptly and properly protected, the wound may become infected by rainwater or dirty water, inviting a large number of fungi (such as wood rot fungi) and bacteria (such as soil bacillus) to invade and parasitize.
This can lead to rot at the wound, exposure of the woody part, or the formation of tumors, causing poor plant growth, massive leaf drop, death of large branches, and in severe cases, the death of the entire osmanthus plant.
Prevention methods:
For small wounds on the main stem or large branches, wound healing agents should be applied promptly;
For minor wounds that have partially or slightly rotted, clean the wound area until the fresh wood and cambium are exposed, then apply a wound healing agent to the fresh wound to promote quick healing;
For old, large wounds on the trunk where the cambium has already been destroyed and the woody part has been exposed for many years, the rotted and exposed woody part should be cleaned.
It should be regularly treated with a lime sulfur mixture for preservation, or a two-component “marble glue” can be quickly applied to the fresh wound after adjustment of its color, which will provide better protection;
For large osmanthus plants with cavities in the main stem, the rotted part should be thoroughly cleaned first. Care should be taken not to damage the isolation layer between the rotted and unrotted wood, and the cavity should be filled with polyurethane foam.
‘Jade Linglong’ has a good tree shape, many flowers, and a strong fragrance. Its ornamental value is very high, making it a preferred tree species for garden cultivation and flower picking.
As its top dominance is not obvious, and it has dense branches, narrow leaves, and thick flowers, it’s also an excellent material for pot planting.
Peggie was once a high school mathematics teacher, but she set aside her chalkboard and textbooks to follow her lifelong passion for flowers. After years of dedication and learning, she not only established a thriving flower shop but also founded this blog, “Flowers Library”. If you have any questions or wish to learn more about flowers, feel free to contact Peggie.
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