Stewarts Garden Centres note growth in olive tree popularity

Emily Maltby 20/04/2017

It must be all the holidays to Greek islands, as Stewarts Garden Centres say olive trees (Olea Europaea) are becoming a more popular feature in British gardens.

The company which has centres in Wimborne and in Christchurch has expanded its range to meet the demand, where customers not only purchase smaller lollypop shaped plants, but also invest in larger olive trees, some trimmed with a cloud shaped foliage, for over ?1000.

Jamie Rolling, outdoor plant buyer manager at Stewarts, said: “The Olive plant requires very little attention, whether kept in a container inside a well ventilated room, or planted in the garden, or kept in a container on a patio area. In their natural habitats, often in quite barren locations, Olive trees can live to be 1000s of years old.”

?The British summers will usually provide enough warm for olive trees to flower, and start to produce fruit, but he says that it is rare that the fruit will ripen enough to be edible. Since the introduction of olive plants in 2004 into the UK, many olive farmers sell on their older specimens and often these can be seen to have a Bonsaied effect created by the pruning techniques used.

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