Home > Fruit Trees > Olive Trees
Olive trees, Olea europaea, are a significant agricultural tree crop that was important in ancient civilization trade routes, such as Rome and Greece, or predating those cultures in the Hebrew Bible, the Israelites.  The olive oil was used to light lamps of the Jewish Prophets.  The olive oil also was used to supplement cooking, pickling, and anointing the heads of Kings.  Olive trees were brought into America by the Spanish explorers, and the commercial growing of olive tree orchards has remained, for the most part, in Western States, like California.  Thomas Jefferson brought in olive trees from Europe  to be established for growing along the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina, however, hurricanes winds eliminated those olive tree orchards before the last century.  A new interest in growing olive trees in the Southeastern United States has established new olive tree orchards near Lakeland, Georgia.  Olive trees are slow growing trees, but olives can be formed on very small trees the first year of planting.  The small white flowers are tantalizingly fragrant in the fall, and the fruit set takes place shortly after.  These evergreen trees can grow for centuries into twisted, gnarled trunks that form excellent ornamental trees in the landscape and are highlighted with their silvery leaf color.  Olive trees are evergreen growers, drought resistant and have practically no insect or disease problems.  Olive trees are grown from rooted cuttings commercially, but some olive tree cultivars are self-sterile, and two different kinds of olive trees should be planted to insure the best fruit production.  Olives do have seeds (pits), but the outcome of the results vary in the quality, fruit size, etc, and. is unpredictable.  It is not recommended to grow olive trees from the seed, but from cloned nursery trees.

Arbequina Olive Tree Barouni Olive Tree Lucca Olive Tree Mission Olive Tree

Arbequina Olive Tree Barouni Olive Tree Lucca Olive Tree Mission Olive Tree
USDA Zones 7-10 USDA Zones 7-10 USDA Zones 7-10 USDA Zones 7-10
Barouni Olive Tree
Mission Olive Tree
Many Kinds of Olive Trees
The Barouni Olive trees begin bearing when only one year old, and the crops increase as the trees grow larger in size. The Barouni Olives can be pressed into Olive Oil, or they can be processed and eaten at the table as a black colored Olive product. The Mission Olive trees have been grown in American (California) for centuries at Spanish Monasteries and still today they are important to grow as a commercial Olive tree destined to be used in making olive oil or to be processed as a black canned fruit to be eaten out of season. This video depicts many different cultivars of olive trees that are available to purchase or for growing, either as commercial Olive tree producers, or as a home orchard tree that produces large crops of olives in your own garden.