Olives in Toronto

[Kooper]

After a successful summer of gardening and harvesting tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables I want to try something more ambitious. Has anyone ever had any success in planting Olive trees?

[rld]

I'm afraid anything other than an olive tree in a container (or heated greenhouse) is out of the question in Toronto. Most olive trees are only hardy to roughly -8 C, and not for sustained periods.

Toronto cookbook author Jennifer McLagan writes about her "Mediterranean Trinity" in her blog:
http://jennifermclagan.blogspot.com/2008/09/perfect-day.html

I have a fig in a container that's living on my south facing porch right now. I'd love to add an olive tree as well. I've found a very interesting company in Quebec, Flora Exotica, that sells an amazing array of exotic (by Canadian standards) plants, including olives:
www.floraexotica.ca/Fruit.htm (second item in list

)

I haven't ordered from Flora Exotica yet, so I can't comment on the company.

[Cremon]

I am very curious to hear the feedback from people on this too. I have been doing some reading on this - the trees need to be pruned, need to be planted in a spot with lots of drainage, etc. Also, it will be a few years before your tree starts to produce olives unless you plant one that is already 2-3 years old or more.

I'd also be curious to see if any plant outlets like Lowes, Home Depot or Pikes Nurseries sell olive trees. I have been toying with this idea for a long time myself but haven't tried it yet. I hope this thread gets lots of responses from successful owners of hardy olive trees,

[Nyleve]

Oddly enough I bought a tiny baby olive tree at my local Foodland just a month or so ago. I definitely don't expect it to ever bear olives, but it's cute. For sure it'll be coming inside this winter - along with my fig tree, my caper bush and my bay leaf tree. Ha. I live an hour northeast of Toronto.

[Cremon]

I live in Georgia in the US where they say you can grow olives. Check this website: http://www.tytyga.com/product/Manzani... They sell many different olive varieties and sizes. Plus it is in Georgia not too far from where I live. The $189 version (6-7 feet tall) of it starts bearing fruit the year you plant it if it gets planted in spring. This looks very tempting - the Manzanillo tree looks like the one I want. I would like to pick some green (for martinis and such - even though pickling them can be a nightmare - you need lime (not the fruit but the alkaline solution) to get the bitter flavor out). And the black (ripe) olives are perfect for salt (also called oil cured) curing.