San Antonio is nice

I’m glad to see that the San Antonio/Hill Country area is looking better and greener. I was in San Antonio this past week and comparing how it looks now versus when we were in Marble Falls/Fredericksburg over the Labor Day weekend, the country side has made quite a comeback after some rain and cooler temperatures. Back in September the only green plants anywhere were the prickly pear cacti which were abundant.

The San Antonio Botanical Garden was nice but I would definitely like to see it in a different season of the year. My highlight of the trip was a visit to the Sandy Oaks Olive Orchard and Nursery near New Braunfels. The owner, Saundra Winokur was nice to give us a tour on Wednesday even though the normal tour day is Saturday. We bought olive oil, skin care products made from olive oil, and I bought a small olive tree to bring home and plant. I know the odds of ever producing an olive in the Dallas area are slim, but I wanted to experiment and I liked the way the tree looked. I bought a “Mission” olive variety which grows up to 20’ tall, but I plan on keeping it pruned back and planting it in a large container so I can move it into the garage on really cold nights (Saundra told me that they are cold tolerant down to 10 degrees but I have read otherwise). I guess that I would be getting ahead of myself if I started shopping around for a used olive press for producing olive oil? Does anyone else in zone 8a have any experience growing olive trees?

I named my olive tree “Ollie” which you can see is a handsome tree.

Very nice tree, good luck with it.
Josephine.

Ollie is pretty!!

I watched a documentary on PBS recently about the Olive industry in Texas and of course their farm was featured. I had no idea the Spanish who established missions in the SW almost always brought olive trees and grape vines with them, hence the name Mission olive. The program made me want an olive tree too. Keep us posted on how your girl fares in big D. Marty

The pic of Ollie is nice it is nice to see most anything growin at this time of year..just wondering if any of Y'all have ever grown the Russian Olive it was a very aggresive invader along the desert creeks where I formerly lived in Nevada..The strangest tree(in the high desert) to my way of thinking were Black Walnuts ..My imagination runs wild trying to figure out how they came to be so far away from thier natural habitat..

I have an Olive Arbequina which I've had potted since 2009. It is a delicate, pretty tree with graceful foliage.

In 2010, it had tiny olives on it. This year, I intend to plant it in ground.

podster

I'm thrilled to hear that someone who lives in the Northern part of Texas has had success producing olives. The Arbequina variety was one of the three varieties that Saundra Winokur suggested that I choose from. I believe that I chose Mission variety because she said it was a little more cold tolerant than the other two varieties.

What made you decide to plant your olive tree in the ground? I'm still trying to decide if it will be easier to keep the tree in a container until it gets established and move it into the garage when necessary, or plant it in the ground and somehow cover it when the temperatures go below freezing.

I just discovered the Texas Olive Oil Council website. There is a multi-part presentation located here

http://texasoliveoilcouncil.org/media/GrowingOlives_Part1.pdf

discussing how they did experiments using the Arbequina variety. I haven’t read the entire presentation but I believe the focus is on how they determined that olive trees would grow and produce in Texas. Also, I believe that there is a link on the website to the PBS production about the exploding Texas olive tree industry you referred to. The more information I learn the more excited I get for my experiment of growing a producing olive tree in North Texas. I even became a member of the Texas Olive Oil Council.

I have decided to plant it in ground as I have limited space in the greenhouse.

I have a lime, a lemon and a satsuma in pots that I move in as well as other large plants.

If left in the container outside in winter, freezing could damage the roots so it will be better protected in ground.

I selected the O. arbequina as it appeared well suited to this zone/climate.

Hrp50
What else did you do in San Antonio? I'm going there the first of March, never been to Texas before. I had the San Antonio Botanical Garden on my list. Might put that olive tour on the list as well.

Visit the Sunken Gardens/Japanese Garden & the zoo. They're close to the botanical garden. Also, there is a fun little train you can ride near the zoo that takes you through Breckenridge Park.

You'll want to see the Riverwalk, the Alamo (don't be surprised that it's smaller than you'd imagined and smack-dab in the middle of downtown), and go up to the observation deck in the Tower of Americas.

If you're into history, you can also tour the missions. That's an interesting thing to do.

If you're going to be in SA for long, you can also take a day trip to the Hill Country and the Fredericksburg area. The wildflowers may be blooming and that's always a pretty sight. The Wildseed Farm is located just west of Fredericksburg and they have a lovely display garden. They also sell seeds and plants and other things. http://www.wildseedfarms.com/

If you continue west out of the Wildseed Farms, you can visit Luckenbach! LOL