Olive tree - Rennie Bottali

We have a three to five year old olive tree that we planted at the back of our garden approx a year ago.
I am a little concerened as it does not seem to be very healthy. The base of the root sits on the shelf of our clay soil that is 18 inches below the surface. We have not really watered the tree as I did not want to over water. It is in a sunny position but we do get bad winds when the weather is colder,
Any Advice would be great.

Kind Regards

Rennie Bottali

 

I wont be able to help on this but i did have a Black Olive Standard a few years back and year after year it gradually got worse with leaves going yellow and with brown spots. In the end it just got so bare i ditched it. I also have Oleanders which although are supposed to be hardy down to about -6c, they only ever grow and look half decent when we've had blistering heat for months on end and that's rare in the UK. I think they should be sold as dormant up to +40c lol. I'll probably get rid of them this year too if they don't improve.

 

I agree. We have had to get rid of buxas plants, hedging and it looks like the olive this year as the weather has been so bad. They also seem to be affected by the wind. Also bought because they were meant to be hardy but there clearly not.

Kind Regards

Rennie Bottali

 

Yes i suppose it's easy to forget when we buy these things that they've spent their previous lives inside heated greenhouses under optimum conditions.