Olive Trees in NC?

[ninnymary]

Welcome a member @jackb lives in NY and has olive trees

She's in North Carolina and is trying to find varieties that will grow there in the ground.

Mary

 

[jackb]

Welcome a member @jackb lives in NY and has olive trees

Because of our New York weather I grow them in containers in a greenhouse in the summer, spring and fall and briing them indoors to the basement during the worst of winter.
I can, though, highly recommend a site to contact for advice and trees. These folks can point you in the right direction and have the lowest priced trees and shipping I have ever found online. If you contact them you will find them nice folks to do business with. They can tell you exactly what trees will do best in your area, and which to choose for either oil, table, or both.

http://georgiaolivefarms.com/gof/

 

[majorcatfish]

welcome from greensboro nc... dont know of anyone growing olive trees out this way, but heck we grow kiwis.. there are cold tolerant varieties out there, hope the best in your search

 

[@HeatherNC]

I have a beautiful Aberquina outside of Greensboro (Elon). I keep it potted. I have had it set flowers but no fruit. It did get more cold than I wanted when we were out of town and died back quite a bit so I don't think I will ever plant it. We are considering a second potted tree to improve the fruiting although they are supposed to be self-pollinating.

 

[Nyboy]

ask @jackb about olives his give fruit

 

[Palm Man]

Hi everyone,
I realize this is a very old post, but there seems to be quite a bit of interest in olive tree growing in North Carolina. I have been researching and trying different varieties of olive trees here in Mocksville, NC, Zone 7b. So far I have had success with the Vassilika variety, now about 6’. This past winter (2024-2025) was cold enough and dry enough to have killed back an established Magnolia figo, Banana shrub on the north side of my house. This has never happened before. But my Vassilika olive on the east side of my home out in the lawn with no wind protection has survived the last 3 winters with little to no damage. I also have Nitkitshyana that died to the ground in the winter of 2022-2023, but has since grown to about 6 feet high and wasn’t affected by last winter. I have 2 Arbequina olive trees in the garden. The first one is out in the yard, fully exposed. It died to the ground this past winter and has since grown back to about 2’ tall. The second one is on the south side of my home about 10’ from the house and has some wind protection. It is in a half whiskey barrel and I put mulch around the exterior of the barrel over winter. It has been outside now for 3 winters and has had no damage. I hope my experiments might help others of you interested in olive trees.

There is also a 20+ year old Arbequina olive tree growing at Plant Delights Nursery in Raleigh. Tony Avent, owner, says it has never been damaged by cold. I saw it the last time I was there and it is about 12-15’ tall and about as wide.

 

[baymule]

There’s a lot of information in old posts. Your olive trees sound amazing and I hope they continue to do well for you.

 

[flowerbug]

olives and olive oil have such an ancient history.