It is a Sub Tropical and Tropical Kind of Day

Today I faced an olive with some hard love. It had to be done. Last year all of my olives were re-potted and as usual they sulk and loose material. They have grown well in the overly warm winter to put out extensive growth. That growth; however, was not even and I lost considerable internal foliage and branches.The exterior would have to be greatly reduced.

2018 Olive: Imagine this tree as a 6 foot tall bush. That is where it started. Last summer in grumped through its re-potting and recovered to strong growth during winter and early spring. It lost a great number of internal branches and ramification is only on the ends. This has to be corrected.

To gain back inner growth the trees foliage must be severely reduced to allow sun and air inside the tree. Olives are prone to attach by white fly and scale. This take considerable energy out of the tree. In my area, if I did not nearly defoliate the tree its thick foliage would be covered by white fly eggs. By thinning out the foliage I am able to spray and treat the trees so they will not be overtaken. Dead branches have been removed and after taking the next photo I tied down some branches.Olive scare easily so I use extreme care in wiring.

2018 Olive Re-imagined, after heavy pruning, branch reduction and before tie down wires. This is a massive reduction to recover inner foliage and better ramification.

Some will say it looks too thin; however, as long as you leave at least two leaves on each branch they will recover nicely. Olives are very strong growers

Today, I checked in on a number of other trees. One of my favorite olive clumps, the spring growth of the Brazilian Raintree and the next tropical re-potting subject; Callandra Tweedi (Flame Tree)