Orange trees growing in South Africa
Frequently one reads adverts for fruiting trees, such as oranges, lemons and olives, that one would normally regard as rather tender, yet are advertised as suitable for ordinary garden cultivation, resistance to cold
high winds, frost resistant to -5° C. etc.
Has any reader experience, directly or indirectly, of people in the U.K. successfully fruiting these in their gardens, apart from in the very warmest places on the coast?
Howard Stringer.
For news of some exotics fruiting in England see our main website:
Olives in Suffolk; Exotics and Early Fruits in the South East; Pomegrantes fruiting in England
and also on this Blog see Olive Trees fruiting in England
At the Kitchen Garden at Chiswick House we very successfully fruited lemons. They were kept under glass from mid-November until late April, so maybe that doesn’t count? This year we had kiwi fruits, though they didn’t ripen to edibility – small and bullet-hard, but the plant was only 3 years old, and not planted against a wall, so maybe next year…
Yes olives, lemons and kumquats definitely fruit in the UK. Although we are based in London, which is a microclimate.
I have lots of olives on my olives and lemons.
I have four olives and two lemon trees all of them are unprotected in the winter as I never remember to get my fleece out and we have had some very cold nights!
However, we used a lemon in a protected courtyard in Richmond, Surrey and although it’s still alive it’s not too happy!
Olives will take the cold they don’t like wet feet though.
Claire
Seven years ago I was told to plant a massive olive tree about 10 feet from the Menai Straits in North Wales. When in my humble opinion I questioned the wisdom of this I was informed by the owner ‘well they grow by the dead sea don’t they?’
As yet the gentleman still goes to Tescos for his olives.