I live on the Yorkshire coast (within a mile of the sea), and have two olive trees. They're in pots. My parents live approx' 5 miles inland and also have an olive, which is planted in the ground.
Where I live, we get very few (if any) 'hard' frosts - but where my parents live, they tend to get more. The sea air I'm guessing. Also in the area generally, we are surrounded by moorland and hills on three sides, and the sea on the fourth which makes snow a rarity (unless it comes from the sea), and puts us in a 'rain shadow area'.
My parents wrapped their olive in fleece whenever a hard frost was expected and it has been fine. Mine were also fine, but left undressed.
This is just my experience, and I'll add that we haven't had serious weather recently, such as minus double digits, sustained freezing temperatures or heavy snow.
It's a dice-roll most likely, should those conditions occur.
I’ve an olive in a pot and I’m in Yorkshire. It’s fairly protected by a fence and other plants in pots, so seems to do quite well. When it was younger, I did protect it with fleece wrapped around it, but didn’t this winter (which was relatively mild). I would probably fleece it if the temperature was forecast to really drop. Give it a try would be my advice.
Thanks everyone for your info/advice and personal stories. I’ve bought an olive tree today and will give it a go. I’m tempted to get a fig tree as well but will leave that for now.
I reckon They’re pretty hardy and if I can get through first few years it’ll be nicely established. I’ll let you know how it progresses.
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Where I live, we get very few (if any) 'hard' frosts - but where my parents live, they tend to get more. The sea air I'm guessing. Also in the area generally, we are surrounded by moorland and hills on three sides, and the sea on the fourth which makes snow a rarity (unless it comes from the sea), and puts us in a 'rain shadow area'.
My parents wrapped their olive in fleece whenever a hard frost was expected and it has been fine. Mine were also fine, but left undressed.
This is just my experience, and I'll add that we haven't had serious weather recently, such as minus double digits, sustained freezing temperatures or heavy snow.
It's a dice-roll most likely, should those conditions occur.
thanks again.
my concern is that it has now been boxed up for 7 days with no light.
what do people think?