[Jim T]

sounds fantastic but depends where you live it would probably die here in norfolk .if you lived down south you might get away with it i would love to grow one on my plot. come on experts  i know one of you, probably has there own olive grove .lucky beggers  

  OK so I have taken the plunge and obtained 2 mini olive trees and prepared a nice warm bed fo them on our Wirral allotment - dug deep with plenty of cow manure. Tomorrow they go to bed with a fleece bed- quilt just in case.
Wish me luck :roll: Jim
PS Its not the olives we want, just the beautiful trees
PPS The suppliers told me the trees are OK down to -5C.

[ted_woodley]

I have an olive tree on my allotment. No problem. But it doesn't produce many olives.

[Muppet]

I have an olive tree in a pot, stays outside allllll year and does fine!  

Some olives too!  

I'm gonna plant it in the garden when we move... :shock:

Suffolk by the way, not toooo exotic...  

[wellingtons]

... in my garden.  I've had it for 3 years and it's about 4 feet tall.  It stays out all year round and produces olives every year, although as WG says they're absolutely inedible unless they're brined or whatever you do to 'em.  I know cos I've tried 'em ...  :shock:

[yewtreemob]

very interesting posts.  Olives grow OK anywhere in the UK and the farmer in Shropshire is putting in 200 trees not 20 by the way.

 I would defintely NOT manure them etc - they are mediteranean and need a poor soil with good drainage - treat like lavenders - don't feed and keep their feet dry.  They do very well in Norfolk and are for sale at a nursery in W Runton.  Only problem is the price!

[WG.]

Olives grow OK anywhere in the UK

I'd like to see them coping with minus 15C which we get every winter (until this one).

[tadpole]

I have an olive tree in my garden. I get half a dozen olives each year since I bought it at the gardeners world live show at the NEC 2005) I have not had any problems with the frost, but I have to be careful of waterlogging as my soil is only a spade deep, under that is clay.
 I also have a desert grapevine that gives me 15 or so pounds of small but sweet grapes each year

[roller]

I'd say most of our soils contain far too much nitrogen to grow figs well or olives,if I were to grow either i'd grow in huge pots,using a mix of sand,limestone,topsoil and compost.I would say figs and olives are more suited to patio areas..

[andyh4]

Olives grow OK anywhere in the UK

I'd like to see them coping with minus 15C which we get every winter (until this one).

We have 2 trees both in pots in Germany (latitude a little South of London) doing well producing olives and surviving regular winter temperatures at -15°.  It's sustained waterlogged soil that does for them, but cold is really not a big issue - at worst cuts back the growing tips a bit but they come back from lower down.

[WG.]

Olives grow OK anywhere in the UK

I'd like to see them coping with minus 15C which we get every winter (until this one).

We have 2 trees both in pots in Germany (latitude a little South of London) doing well producing olives and surviving regular winter temperatures at -15°.  It's sustained waterlogged soil that does for them, but cold is really not a big issue - at worst cuts back the growing tips a bit but they come back from lower down.

Interesting.  Thanks Andy.  

I'll start clearing a patch for my olive trees now - or at least I will as soon as someone posts a recipe for home-brining/curing them.

[Jim T]

Olives grow OK anywhere in the UK

I'd like to see them coping with minus 15C which we get every winter (until this one).

We have 2 trees both in pots in Germany (latitude a little South of London) doing well producing olives and surviving regular winter temperatures at -15°.  It's sustained waterlogged soil that does for them, but cold is really not a big issue - at worst cuts back the growing tips a bit but they come back from lower down.

Thanks for this Andy.  :idea:  :idea:

I had a mound of clay left over from a drainage job.
Having learnt from you and others, I had the Idea of "A mount of olives" so I chopped and shaped the mud mound into a sandy soil hillock, Made 3 holes, checked that they drained quickly and have placed 3 olive trees in their pots on the mount.
I'll leave them there for a few weeks looking beautiful - 2 babies and one 7ft tall.
Then when the hillock has settled down a bit, they will go in the soil in the certain knowledge that they will not drown and they will survive whatever cold the north west of England may give them.
Jim
PS I've made some steps up the mount so that we can see whats going on in neighboring plots

Jim