Cultivar Profile

Little Ollie® Dwarf Olive Tree

Olea europaea ‘Montra’
Little Ollie Dwarf Tree

Cultivar Profile

Little Ollie® Dwarf Olive Tree

Olea europaea ‘Montra’

This is a dwarf, non-fruiting evergreen with a graceful, multi-branching habit. Deep green leaves have silvery green undersides. It is attractive to use as a formal hedge or specimen shrub. Excellent in topiary form, or trained as a single trunk tree in smaller spaces. Heat, drought and salt tolerant.

It is a small olive tree with all the Mediterranean look and feel without the size or the fruit! Most often seen in shrub forms, which produce beautiful single plants. Or, line them up into a natural or sheared hedge. These USA cultivars are particularly useful along driveways and street sides where reflected heat from paving and vehicles would wither less heat hardy species.

Trained as patio trees, Little Ollie makes outstanding potted specimens, such as a pair flanking a classical sculpture or an Italian style wall fountain. In the ground, these patio trees are ideal in vine pockets and along walkways where staccato repeats create bold a semi-formal style.

Specifications

Fruiting

Non Fruiting

Beautiful non fruiting specimen

Olive Oil

None

Bloom

None

This no bloom, no fruit cultivar is prized for landscape uses as it produces a fraction of other cultivars’ pollen.

Country

U.S.A.

Type

Shrub

Foliage

Green Color

Growth

Moderate, compact and rounded

Size

Average 2 to 4 ft. tall, can grow larger. Round and compact shrub.

Uses

Landscape Use

Border, Coastal Exposure, Container, Hedge, Specimen, Topiary

Zones

USDA 8 – 11, Sunset 3 – 24, 29, 30, 33

Hardiness

Hardy down 20 to 30 °F

Light

Full sun

Water

Once established, water occasionally.

Water more frequently in extreme heat or containers. Newly planted olive trees will require more water to establish.

Soil

Well-drained, nutrient poor soil

Light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils all acceptable. Olive trees prefer well-drained soil and even grow well in nutritionally poor soil. Hot, rocky locations. Suitable pH: acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils.

Care

Thrives in average to lean, well-drained soils. Water deeply and regularly during the first growing season to establish an extensive root system. Reduce frequency once established in the landscape; continue to water container plants regularly. Feed with a general purpose fertilizer before new growth begins in spring.Pruning time: winter.

This dwarf fruitless olive was introduced by Monrovia in 1987. The olive was first planted into Southern California by the mission padres and have contributed to the early landscape character of that region. A symbol of peace and prosperity, the olive has a long history in the western world, beginning with the ancient Greeks, who named their city Athens after the goddess Athena gave them the olive tree.

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Samples

Little Ollie shrub

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