The Wilsoni Europa Olive Tree (Multi Branch) is certainly my favorite tree. Nothing quite strikes a feeling of “Peace” and “Mediterranean” as the olive tree.
On a landscape project, I installed 6 large box Olive Trees on a property, at the request of the homeowner. Although I felt that the design would be too plain initially, I found that after the 6 trees were installed in a somewhat linear fashion (with proper space)I found the setting to be amazingly peaceful. It reminded me of being at a winery near Napa valley. It didn’t appear too plain at all, and each tree had a bit of their own characteristics going for it – slightly taller and shorter ones, trunk differences, and even slightly different color in the bark (olive green and some slightly more brown). It’s reasons like these being a practitioner beats studying something to death in a classroom.
The olive tree loves sun and needs good water when getting installed. It’s resilient and drought tolerant once established.
What’s maybe the most fascinating part of the Olive tree is that specs say they can live to about 100 years (source: Sunset Garden Manual), but there are reports of Olive trees living much longer than that. Natives in the Israel area say that they believe the Olive trees are so old, that they think Jesus even walked among those trees. Although this is seemingly conjecture, the fact that it could be true is just plain awesome to me. That’s because I know the happiness that the Olive Tree and nature can bring to the spirits of someone, when we are able connect to nature and make sense of life.
Consider an Olive Tree in your garden! They make an excellent addition to a California Native or Mediterranean Garden. They can also even be planted in large pots, and taken care of that way as well.