Hello everyone - seeking your help!
I transplanted three tea olives at the end of October. They were moved into a wonderful raised bed with partial sun, so it seemed like the perfect spot. We have gotten decent rain since then, so they have had good water.
But I have just observed that there are several brown leaves in the center of each shrub, and I am afraid I may have killed them! They are about 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide.
Have any of you had experience with transplanting tea olives? Is this just transplant shock? Or have I really screwed up?
Any ideas?
Trasplanted Tea Olives, now have brown leaves! Dying?
I've not transplanted any myself so, cannot answer you. I have four of them in various spots, three in semi-shade, one at the base of the deck that gets full sun until about 2pm and it is the healthiest one of all. This is one of my favorite shrubs and it does not require a lot of TLC, just keeps on blooming. I just learned from one of Walter Reeves shows, tea olives bloom in months with an "R" which is most of the year. Hopefully, it is just transplant shock. Good luck with them.
I moved a few big ones and I got some brown leaves. Everything turned out fine I think it's just a little shock. Mine were bigger than yours and took basically a year to really start growing again.
BTW The ones that do the best for me are in pretty much all shade.
I love tea olive trees. They smell like peaches.
Thanks everyone - I have seen a few new blossoms on them, so I think I might be OK! I am encouraged that CoreHHI also had brown leaves after transplanting, and they turned out fine.
Regarding sun or shade for tea olives - I am not sure which is better.
At first, I thought shade would be better, so initially they were planted in a shadier area. But they never really bloomed, and they were growing lopsided toward the sun. I had seen others planted in sunnier areas, and they seemed to be much healthier. So that is why I moved them.
I guess time will tell! Hopefully next spring, I will have new growth and lots of fragrance!
ggrevas, I think your trees will be fine. They're pretty hardy and forgiving.
Tea Olive trees are my favorite! I discovered them when we lived in Valdosta. The fragrance just permeated the surrounding area so when we moved to Athens, I had to go right out to the nearest nursery and purchase two of them and planted them right in front of our porch. They had the sun most of the day and did very well. I thought they grew pretty fast, too, and trimmed them quite a bit. In fact, to make them more decorative, I pruned and removed all the leaves, small twigs and smaller branches from the ground up to about 2 feet exposing the trunks and clipped the top into large balls. Wow! Did it look good and boy it grew even fuller. If I find the photo I'll post it.
JoAnn
Tea olives seem to do fine with morning sun but in my area they will burn with afternoon sun in the summer. I'm thinking they are happier as an understory tree but who knows what will work for you.
As far as growing I have a couple by my house that get very little sun and are about 8 years old. I have to trim off a couple of feet in height every year and maybe a foot or two in width. They grow well and are problem free. They don't seem to need much of anything and are blooming right now. They also seem to bloom off and on for me all through the winter.