Plant of the month: The Olive Tree

The Olive tree is a truly beautiful, architectural tree widely loved by landscapers and homeowners throughout the world. This iconic Mediterranean plant is one of the most commonly grown fruit trees, when mature they can provide the homeowner with as much as 18kg of fruit each year.  Or enough for all of your grazing boards.

Olives are widely planted in gardens but are not always grown for their fruit. This productive, long-lived evergreen tree from the Mediterranean is also valued in gardens for its good looks and heat and drought tolerance. Young olive trees have slender trunks and silver green leaves. They can grow as high 5-7 metres and can be used as shade trees or as hedges.  They can also be grown as potted plants or as topiary specimens.

Much like us here at The Sub Branch (!), the Olive tree becomes more beautiful with age and older specimens take on a truly ancient appearance. It can be grown in the ground as a feature tree within your planting scheme, it also makes great hedging and can be useful as a windbreak.

Olive Trees like well-drained soil and full sun for maximum productivity. They appreciate light fertilising (with potassium) and light irrigation in summer to stimulate fruit growth. The flowering period is in early Summer when the bees and wind are instrumental in the pollination process.

If you’d like to extend an olive branch….or even grab a tree, give us a bell.  We source the best quality stock, direct from the growers.