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Old 19-08-2005, 10:13 AM
Martin Brown
 
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aaj wrote:

I'm a new gardener with lots of questions and after some advice.

1) We would love to have an Olive tree in the corner of our garden, but I'm
a little worried if it would survive a Northern winter. I have read some
other posts suggesting a southern city might be Ok, but it might struggle in
a Northern location. Although the winters don't seem as bad as they used to
be, we are quite high up (between Bradford and Leeds), and there are spells
of a few days/weeks where it is bitterly cold, especially with the wind
chill factor.

The tree would be protected on two sides by a fence, and in contrast to the
cold it would get winter and summer sun all day from about 10 am.


I have a couple of small olive trees up in N Yorkshire (they are slow
growing) in pots. One survives outside all the time (but is a bit manky)
and the other gets put under shelter for the worst of the winter.

It is the relentless grey damp that gets them to rot. Dry continental
winter cold they could handle without any difficulty.

2) Assuming it is possible to grow an olive tree outside, I would like to
grow one from a sappling . We inherited a large green house, so perhaps I
could plant it in a pot and start it in there first. I would like to have a
tree about 10', is this a reasonable size or are they normally bigger.?


In the Meditteranean yes. How big is your bank balance? I suspect a
mature tree grown in hot climate would object violently to the shock of
being dumped in cold dank Yorkshire winters but I may be wrong.

How quickly do they grow?


Rather slowly. And much more slowly in the N UK when they barely get out
of dormancy before it is back to winter again. Mine (~1m tall) have just
finally got a full set of nice new leaves out in August. Don't expect to
ripen any fruit. Growing season is extended if grown under glass.

Figs are a lot more rewarding. You can get ripe edible fruit off them
growing outside even here if you have the space.

Regards,
Martn Brown