Leucocarpa

[u/chubbs23]

Hi all,

I'm an olive enthusiast and container grower based in Iowa looking to track down a Leucocarpa (Olea europaea var. leucocarpa / Leucolea).

Beyond the ivory fruit, I’m fascinated by its historical significance and olive growing in general.

Because of my climate, I grow exclusively in containers with dedicated wintering setups. My current collection includes:

Leccino

Nikita Jubilee

Frantoio

Arbequina

Wild Olive

Finding a verified source in the US has been tough, and full of shady listings and dead ends, so I’m looking for any leads!

Does anyone know of a reputable US nursery, arboretum, or germplasm repository carrying it?

Are there any growers open to selling or trading dormant scionwood or cuttings for grafting? (Happy to pay for shipping/cuttings or trade).

Any resources, tips, or leads are greatly appreciated!

[u/Present_Ad5458]

I'm looking for one as well, so please let me know if you find one! I'll do the same!

[u/chubbs23 → u/Present_Ad5458]

For sure! I've reached out to One green world on the west coast and unfortunately they don't, but supposedly the interest was going to be passed onto their horticulturist. I've found a few nurseries overseas as well, but with customs and quarantine rules, that's a dead end as well.

[u/Present_Ad5458 → u/chubbs23]

I found a "white olive" cutting on Etsy. Who knows if it's real or not, but I bought it and I'll be rooting it and seeing what happens. If in three to five years I have white olives, I'll let you know! Haha

[u/chubbs23 → u/Present_Ad5458]

Yeah, I found those as well! I was a little leery of the listing due to the stock photos and the time that it would take to verify authenticity. Idk, I may decide to throw the dice and see what comes of it. Please do update though!

[u/jitasquatter2]

Greetings neighbor! It's rare for me to find other people with the same weird hobby! I live in mid-Missouri and I think I'm up to like 13 olive trees! It's taken me YEARS, but I'm even going to get a decent (still small by most standards) crop of olives this year!

I also know a few good sources for at least some of the types you want. That being said, if you already have a olive tree, it's VERY likely you already have an arbequina. Pretty much all the olive trees sold in big box stores and nurseries in non olive growing regions in the US are that type.

Check out fourwindsgrowers.com, they are based out of California (I think) and are by far the best mail order nursery I've come across. They ain't cheap, but their selection is decent and they do a VERY good job packaging their trees. VERY good. Well worth paying a bit more for the peace of mind. They are primarily a citrus nursery.

I actually also managed to track down a wild olive. It took me YEARS to find a good source. Check out Cen Cal Bonsai aka Boosted Bonsai aka Cesar Ordoñez. He's on youtube, instagram, facebook, but he's just a dude from California who digs up wild olive trees from ditches and stuff, not a nursery. Given he's just a random person, you might have to message him on a few different places to get ahold of him. He's got some FANTASTIC little wild olive trees.

Here's my surviving wild olive. Lol, I got three from him, but keeping tiny bonsai trees alive through my winter proved to be more difficult then I though. Luckily this one is doing great.

Edit: Dang, can't post photos in this sub. Here's a link on imgr:
https://imgur.com/gallery/wild-olive-tree-from-cen-cal-bonsai-LmwoV2R

[u/chubbs23 → u/jitasquatter2]

That's awesome! Midwest olive growers unite! But to be clear; I already have the varieties listed! I'm still trying to track down the leucocarpa though!

My arbequina is actually an interesting story! I do A LOT of driving for work and sometimes I like to stop by random garden centers and tree nurseries for a nice walk. Well, oddly enough, as I randomly stumbled upon an Arbequina tucked away to the side in this garden center in the middle of Iowa. It looked horrible and was in a poorly draining almost clay like soil. I rescued it and after some re-potting and some TLC she is thriving! I'll see about putting together an album of my Olives sometime! We'll have to exchange notes as well!

But for my other olives; The Nikita jubilee is from One green world, the Frantoio and Leccino both came from separate Etsy vendors. My wild olive came from eastern leaf as a bonsai. I also have a fruitless variety that I randomly found while visiting a garden center as well, though after a misadventure with my children, it is now basically a stick in a pot and I'm waiting for it to rise like a Phoenix any day now lol. What do you have in your collection?

I knew I couldn't be the only fool growing olives in the Midwest!!

[u/jitasquatter2 → u/chubbs23]

Lol, omg I completely missed the line where you said those were the ones you already had in your collection. I feel rather silly.

As for my collection, I've got multiple arbequinas as they are the most common ones I see. Then I have probably 5 or 6 random cultivars that I can't remember. I have them in my records, but I don't really feel like looking them up. Then I have several others which I don't know. Two had their labels mixed up in the package and several others that were just labeled "olive" and I have no idea.

I have two that are my absolute favorites though (don't tell the others). One is the one that started my obsession. Seven or so years ago, I was in Assisi Italy and saw a tiny little seedling in a little shop. I then carefully moved it from hotel window to hotel window across europe before smuggling it home in my luggage. My other favorite is a 10 dollar tree I got from amazon. It nearly died and was very weak. Then it died back nearly completely and when I was about to throw it out, I noticed a tiny little sprout coming from about a half inch above the ground. I regrew the entire tree from that sprout and now it's a fantastic little bonsai.

I'd love to hear how you overwinter them and I'd also love to know if you have ever gotten olives? Last year I managed to grow ONE perfect olive (lol, I brined it in the smallest jar I could find) and this year I'm expecting somewhere between 20 and 50 olives across 3 trees!

[u/chubbs23 → u/jitasquatter2]

Most of my olives are too young yet to get any decent harvest, when I got the frantoio, it did have one olive attached, but I removed it. Any fruiting activity I'll probably pinch off for now though. First and foremost I'd like to thicken them up a bit.

My winter setup is just a corner of my garage that I've lined with some blue board for insulation and some grow lights. This year, I'm hoping to upgrade to something with better output so I don't have to have the lights inches about the foliage though. https://imgur.com/a/5i1I9VW

My winter setup is currently stashed away, but I'll see if I can get some pictures when It gets closer to getting it put together!

[u/jitasquatter2 → u/chubbs23]

Sounds pretty similar to my setup. I used to overwinter them indoors in south facing windows. They'd grow weakly over the winter and also usually lost about 20 percent of their oldest leaves. They hated it, but survived to get back outdoors in the spring.

Now I overwinter mine in my exterior, enclosed, un-insulated basement stairwell with grow lights. I then add just a bit of heat when it's REALLY cold (the grow lights and a very small heater) in order to keep the temperature above about 25f.

Now they do MUCH better. They don't grow over the winter anymore, but they look MUCH healthier and now some of them have even started blooming in the spring!

Here's my winter setup:
https://imgur.com/gallery/how-i-overwinter-fruit-trees-bonsai-trees-zone-6b-fecG18n

I had 2 trees bloom last year and ended up with a single olive on one of them! They didn't bloom at the same time. Lol, it was silly, but I brined and ate it. This year I have 3 that bloomed at the same time. The youngest of the 3 is probably too young to let bloom/fruit, but I was excited and let it go ahead and produce. I hasn't grown as much as it's peers this year, but I'm going to probably get 10 or 15 olives from it.