Any hope for my olive trees

[wonderstuff]

I’ve 3 olive trees in my garden, been here 3 years and they were fairly established when we arrived, but now all 3 are bare and looking quite lifeless, there’s another few established semi-deciduous shrubs, no idea what they are, but all look quite dead. I’m thinking super hot summer plus very wet March has just been too much?

Might the olives recover?

im going to need to plant some more shrubs, what could thrive in a chalky, well draining Hampshire garden? Soil is awful, my herbs seem to be the only things thriving at the moment.

Yes that might be over watering. Next time you water it add tomato feed to the water .

That is the most stunning olive !!!

Wha5 beautiful olive trees some of you have!

I have two small ones, each in quite a large pot, that I think are now defunct; they were fine last year but no leaves now following that very cold winter.

Do we think it’s worth me pruning them hard now, or is it too late?!

I have the same question, my 3m olive tree in the ground lost all but a few of the top leaves after the winter . I feared the worst but I can see new shoots appearing- even on the trunk where I don't want new growth. Is it too late to chop now and should I do just a part of the tree first or do it all at once? I'm so happy it's not dead 😁

I'd chop it now take at least a third off all over and then feed it

Thank you, @Vicliz24. I just wondered if those little spots meant something. Will feed as suggested.

Thank you @Vicliz24 . I was thinking of taking some larger branches down to a shooting bit, what do you think. It needed shaping anyway ?

Thanks from me too @Vicliz24 I’m going to do it right now - figure I have nothing to lose…

You definitely haven't and they really do respond well to a big chop .

Yes that sounds good . I often can't see where I'm pruning to so don't worry too much about where you cut .

Coming back to this, a couple of my trees have growth only on the base, what do I do? Prune the top more? Previously I’ve cut back low growth to encourage it higher up, but there’s nothing above ground level.

Also coming back to this - I cut off all of the winter-affected dead growth. The shape is now questionable, but re-growth is really vigorous.

I am going to start feeding, but encouraged so far.

I have one that did this 10 years ago . I cut the dead top completely off because I was convinced it was dead . The only thing that's happened is I now seem to have an olive shrub not a tree . It's kind of gone haywire since but I don't think it will shoot back from the dead top . My advice would be cut but be prepared in case it doesn't ever become a tree again. I'm not sure I'm going to keep my olive shrub 😂

Hi, my lovely olive died in the -7 spell this winter I think. Except clearly not totally dead as it had sprouted from the base, like suckers (I have removed) and at the top of the trunk. Weirdest thing. The crown of the tree is all dead wood so I guess I’ll saw it off and start again! I love my olive tree and it was sooooo beautiful.

although I’m several thousand years off having one as amazing as your @Eyesopenwideawake . What an incredible tree, I think I’d be quite in awe of the responsibility of looking after it! Just thinking about your tree has made go a bit glassy-eyed in wonder.