Description of Tree

• The California Rare Fruit Growers website lists eight cultivars that it calls representative of those grown commercially: Ascolano, Barouni, Gordal, Manzanillo, Mission, Picholine, Rubra and Sevillano.
  
  Trees may reach 50 feet in height, but they handle pruning well, so you may limit your tree's height to a manageable 20 feet, the website notes, adding that foliage is gray-green and the tree has a "graceful, billowing appearance."
  
  

Growing Conditions

• Olive trees planted outdoors need a long, hot growing season to produce quality fruit. Trees are not adapted to temperatures lower than 12 degrees Fahrenheit, and green fruit will be damaged when the temperature drops to 28 degrees.
  
  You may grow an olive tree in a container or as a bonsai plant.
  
  

Most Varieties Self-Pollinate

• Each tree typically produces both male and female flowers, so the wind pollinates them, making the need for cross-pollination with another tree unnecessary. The California Rare Fruit Growers website reports, however, that fruit production is improved when trees cross-pollinate with another variety of olive tree. Some varieties, the website explains, are "self-incompatible," meaning they "do not set fruit without other varieties nearby."