Old Olive Trees in Pots

Has anyone bought an old olive tree in a pot? They now seem to be so popular and a recent trend. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand they are very sculptural and interesting to my eye.....but will they survive in these conditions in the UK? I have seen them for sale at upwards of £500 (or even several thousand pounds). Sometimes the pot they are in is barely larger than the trunk size. Some must be hundreds of years old. Do they have enough roots to continue to survive in a large pot? What about watering? They must have been dug up from somewhere in Spain or Italy or elsewhere in the Mediterranean olive regions. What do people think?

 

I have an olive in a pot outside, I brought it home in my case from Cyprus, about 7 years old now, about 3or4ft tall, they will take cold weather, it gets watered with the other pots, olive roots transplant well and live for 100s of years, the bonsai type prices reflect the time invested in them

 

I'm glad you mentioned that Redwing, reminded me to bring Boris the olive tree down to the plot and give him a feed

He'm nearly 30 now

 

He'm got flower buds

Only ever had 2 tiny olives on him, should I put him in the greenhouse?

 

I have a standard olive tree in a container on the patio for about 4 years . It takes the winter no problems , although we have not had a really cold one for a few years. In the village there is a "100 year old olive tree" , really nice built into a seating area. Similar to the one in the photo.
For a standard olive tree you can pay £20 to £50 , for the old olive trees you pay from £500 up to telephone numbers !

Google photo

 

The picture that @HarryS posted is what my question in my opening post referred to. Do these big old trees survive in these conditions? Increasingly I see them for sale in the UK. Do they survive with their roots severely pruned and curtailed like this?

Nice to see the general discussion about olives though. Are they going to be increasingly common here with climate change and global warming occurring? I have two but both are young. One, the taller one, stays outside in winter but I insulate the pot it's growing in. The other is small enough to spend the winter in my coldframe.

In answer to @Zigs question: if you can put it in a cold greenhouse for the winter, I would and then bring it out in spring. They don't want heat though. They, apparently, need two months of coldish weather.

 

Good theme for a thread Redwing

Got this when I was in Palestine

Real pressed Olive leaf off a tree that was alive when Jesus was

 

Thanks, I knew some were 1000 years old......but 2000?

 

That's what they reckoned They were propper gnarled, very wide trunks and covered in lizzards

Not got any pics as Dad only took slide photos

 

This one is about an hour from me ...

Oldest olive tree in the country

 

Cor, he's a beauty Vicky

 

Hoover Van Dyson (lovingly called Boy) says obrigadinho @Zigs. Oh ... you meant the olive tree ...

@Redwing You see large potted olive trees everywhere here. Our local called The Olive Branch recently put a large one in two stacked truck tyres on a tarmac parking lot. They are trees very tolerant of neglect. We have one next to our kitchen patio in the orange grove and it has never been tended to in the 20 years we have owned our cottage except for t'other half cutting it away from our a/c unit. Sadly they are the horrible black bitter olives unlike the fat juicy green ones behind our cottage.

 

The oldest one is possibly 4000 years old

Olive tree of Vouves - Wikipedia

 

Wow @Zigs ! You have been doing research. Must have been planted just after Minoan times. Amazing!

 

That certainly does sound like neglect!