Planting guide

When to plant olive

Silvery evergreen that thrives on neglect; fruit needs curing before eating. In Melbourne it goes in All year.

Start as: Potted plant or Bare-root plant
Ready in: 4+ years to the first crop
Spacing: 400 cm
Depth: 0 cm
Sun: Full sun (6+ hours)
Water: Low
Effort: Easy
Frost-tender: No

When it goes in

● means olive can go in that month, ○ means wait. Worked out from each town's real monthly temperatures, not a zone map. Pick your town for the full list for that month.

Australian towns and cities
Town	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Sydney	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Melbourne	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Brisbane	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Perth	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Adelaide	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Gold Coast	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Newcastle	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Sunshine Coast	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Canberra	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○
Central Coast	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Geelong	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○
Wollongong	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Hobart	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○
Townsville	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○
Cairns	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○
Toowoomba	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Darwin	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○
Ballarat	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○
Mandurah	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Bendigo	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Launceston	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○
Mackay	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○
Rockhampton	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○
Coffs Harbour	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Blue Mountains	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○
Bunbury	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Bundaberg	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Alice Springs	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Mildura	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Port Macquarie	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●

Around the world
Town	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Auckland	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Wellington	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○
Christchurch	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○
London	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○
Manchester	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○
Edinburgh	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○
Dublin	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○
New York City	○	○	○	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	○
Los Angeles	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Chicago	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○
Seattle	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○
Austin	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Toronto	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○
Vancouver	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○
Cape Town	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Johannesburg	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Singapore	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○
Mumbai	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○
Paris	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○
Berlin	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○	○

How to plant olive

Plant in full sun and well-drained soil.
Water young trees; mature ones need little.
Prune lightly to let light in.
Cure fruit in brine or salt; do not eat raw.

Olive varieties

Classic varieties are the reliable, widely grown ones. Adventurous ones are heirlooms, odd colours and rarities.

KalamataClassicheavy-cropper · 26–34 wksLarge, purple table olive
ManzanilloClassicheavy-cropper · 26–34 wksGood table olive
FrantoioClassicheavy-cropper · 26–34 wksFruity oil, Italian classic
VerdaleAdventurousself-fertile · 26–34 wksFrench olive; hardy
ArbequinaAdventurousself-fertile · dwarf · pot-friendly · 26–34 wksSmall tree for oil, good in pots

Where to buy seedlings

Search on QP Seedlings Search on Amazon

Shop links may earn us a commission. It never changes what we recommend.

Shops shown are for Australia. The chooser picks shops for your country.

Good companions

Lavender, Rosemary, Thyme

Olive by month

Jan · Feb · Mar · Apr · May · Jun · Jul · Aug · Sep · Oct · Nov · Dec

More to plant

Lemon · Lime · Apple · Fig · Avocado · Banana

Not sure olive is right for your space? Answer a few taps and see everything that can go in this week.

Find what else you can plant now →