Henry wrote:
Hello

I have just read an article in today's Telegraph with interest - a farm near
Honiton in Devon has planted some Olive trees and is expecting to produce
olive oil in the future.

http://www.otterfarm.co.uk/olives.htm

Sounds suspiciously like a wildy optimistic hobby farmer to me.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.../ixuknews.html

As I live only a few miles away from the farm (I am near Broadclyst,
Exeter), I wondered what peoples opinions are of growing more 'exotic' fruit

Under glass you could grow some more tender things. Ginger is fun for
the fresh new shoots. Nashi (asian) pears are possible as far north as
Yorkshire (I have one) - took it a while to come into fruiting well
though. I also have a ginko tree (from seed) - but I am hoping it will
not set fruit... they are notoriously smelly. Most grafted cultivars
are male for this reason.

Mulberries are fun if you have the space as the tree left to grow
becomes a handsome gnarled large specimen with age.

Of the tender mediteranean plants nectarines, figs and pomegranites are
worth a try if you can give them a suitably warm S facing wall to grow
up. Big problem in the UK is that the sun doesn't get high for long
enough to ripen most of them properly. I expect that is where this
olive tree scheme will come unstuck. I can grow (as in keep alive
slowly getting bigger) olive trees outdoors even in N yorkshire but
there is no realistic chance of any kind of crop actually ripening. The
closest was two years ago when they got to the size of small peas
before aborting when winter came.

love to take advantage of our warming climate and new breeding of plants to
plant something unusual in a permanent location in the garden.

We do get frosts where I live, but rarely colder than about -4C.

More important than the frost is can you improve drainage and keep the
roots dry in winter. Many of the tender continental plants are actually
cold hardy provided that they are kept dry enough. Hard to do in a damp
foggy maritime climate.

Regards,
Martin Brown