Oleas Europeas - Olivos - Oliveiras para jardinagem

Elvas - Oliveiras seculares

A cidade de Elvas esteve outrora rodeada de olivais com as suas seculares oliveiras, actualmente a pretexto de qualquer coisa... as velhinhas oliveiras tem sido abatidas ás centenas.

Será que nesta terra já não gostam de árvores com história!!!

 

Quem sabe talvez o celebre cavaleiro que foi buscar o estandarte a Espanha tenha passado por entre estas oliveiras...

 

 

The Olive tree symbolises the essence of the Mediterranean landscape and lifestyle. It is an elegant, evergreen tree which makes an excellent specimen plant for a sunny courtyard in a terracotta pot or planted in a Mediterranean style olive garden.

Olives are the basis for one of the world's healthiest diets, with low incidence of heart disease and cancers.

General Growing Instructions

Olives are evergreen trees and olive gardens make a superb all-year-round garden statement of peace and prosperity.

Olive trees grow well in sub-tropical and temperate areas in most of the UK with an optimum temperature range of 5-25°C. They need long, hot summers for the fruits to ripen fully, followed by winter temperatures that are low enough to meet the chilling requirement of the specific cultivar. Although mature trees are remarkably frost tolerant, down to -12°C, young olive plants are not fully hardy. So to be completely safe container grown plants can be placed outdoors in the summer and brought into a cold greenhouse or conservatory for winter protection. You can buy mature olive trees from us to make a great olive garden.

 

 

As Mediterranean garden design specialists, we supply olive trees in designs, installations and as a supply-only service.

You can order every size of olive tree from small to extra large. All olive trees are individual cared for by professional growers.

Mature and semi-mature olive tree specimens are individually selected from stock in Tuscany and other Mediterranean sites and acclimatised in the all world.

When ordering, we send our clients the actual images of our larger mature and semi-mature olive trees for personal choice.

Our olive trees have been used in famous designs, including Chelsea Flower Show and Kew Gardens or all world like Dubai and China.

Included with all of our olive tree sales are free guides for soil preparation, growing care, pruning, and olive preparation

 

Site and Planting

Olive trees are happy in a wide range of soils, although low to medium fertility is preferable. Olive gardens with soils that are very fertile are likely to result in excessive vegetative growth. We find that the establishing of newly planted olives is enhanced by the use of a Mediterranean mycorrhizal mix, such as ‘the Friendly Fungi

produced by Rootgrow. The use of a soil conditioner also helps provides good results. Both products are particularly helpful to prevent the compost in pot planted olive trees from going sour.

The site must be well drained. Olive trees grow well on alkaline soils, including those with a high level of salts, provided that the pH level does not exceed 8.5. Windbreaks should be used in exposed areas.

 

 

The usual planting distance varies from 7m to 12m each way, depending on the habit of the cultivar; all olive trees should be staked to avoid wind damage. Closely planted trees may be thinned by re-moving alternate trees when the canopies begin to overlap

 

 

Watering
Water olive trees regularly during dry periods, particularly for the first two to three years after planting. Mulching with organic material is also beneficial. Keep the planting area free of weeds, for a truly magnificent olive garden.

 

Pruning and Training
Prune newly planted olive trees by re-moving the leading shoot when it is about 1.5m tall; select 3 to 5 strong laterals to provide the basic branch structure. Subsequent pruning consists of removing older branches to encourage the growth of new shoots, since fruits are produced on one-year-old wood mostly at the edges of the tree canopy.

 

Pests and Diseases
Olives grown in the open may be affected by various types of scale insect and root-knot nematodes . Olive diseases include Verticillium wilt. Trees grown under cover may be affected by whiteflies, thrips, and red spider mites. Growing under cover, rooted cuttings or budded plants should be grown either in prepared beds or in containers no smaller than 30-35cm in diameter.

Introduction

The olive tree, Olea europaea is instantly recognisable as the quintessential Mediterranean tree and stands as the archetypal sentinel of warm, sunny climes. It is then perhaps surprising that the olive tree is an adaptable and hardy plant suitable for growing in a wide range of climates. In the UK, olive trees perform well in the milder microclimates which to generalise, are southern and western regions, coastal areas and urban locations.

Growing olive trees

To ensure you give your olive tree the best possible start to life, just follow these criteria:

1. Site in the sunniest position possible, ideally south or west facing with some protection from the north and east winds
2. Plant in free-draining soil that will not become waterlogged during the wetter parts of the year; olives are tolerant of both acidic and alkaline soils. Poor sandy soils will benefit from the addition of organic compost and clay soils may require additional drainage or if this is not feasible, then consider a raised bed.
3. Olive trees can successfully grow in containers for many years and while they will grow in most composts, for long-term cultivation we recommend mixing a good quality multipurpose compost 50/50 with John Innes No.3. Never over-pot your olive tree and always re-pot just to a slightly larger pot.
4. Olive trees can be easily pruned to maintain the size and habit required. We recommend that light, formative pruning is undertaken in mid-spring with heavier trimming in early to mid-summer. Never prune during the winter and be cautious in the autumn: like many Mediterranean trees, olives need some heat and recovery time to heal wounds before the dormant winter period.
5. Feed your olive tree with seaweed extract fortnightly between May and September to ensure the tree stays healthy, vigorous and happy.

Cold weather

In areas where the minimum winter temperatures are between -2°C and -5°C, olive trees require no winter protection and will even tolerate drops down to -7°C for short periods, providing the daytime temperature rises sufficiently. In areas of lower winter temperatures, your olive tree can be protected with several layers of horticultural fleece wrapped around the trunk and crown of the tree.
Like many plants grown in pots, olive trees have not yet evolved to tolerate frozen roots; if this happens, they can suffer drought through not being able to take up water or worse still, the roots will be damaged which can result in subsequent poor growth or even death of the tree.
But fear not! This can be prevented by adding several layers of bubble plastic to the inside of the pot when re-potting the plant or simply add layers of bubble plastic to the outside of the pot and secure with twine (not quite as attractive, but just as effective).