The wood is dense, heavy and very close grained, and is favorite choice of boat builders. This black olive tree is a moderate grower that can reach 30 feet in height.Evergreen and salt tolerant, it prefers full to part sun and does best in Zone 10.The branches do have small spines that can prick your fingers, so wear gloves when handling.Add top soil and organic peat humus to the hole when you plant.Leave lower branches on a very young tree...this feeds the trunk and makes it stronger. ... Filthy black mold on leaves, too. However, subsequent and more recent high wind storm events have shown that the Black Olive Trees held up as well as any other species, and better than most. One of the driving motivations for this project is preserving those stories and passing them on.When choosing plants, there is always a fine balance that exists between good and bad, feature and fault, pro and con. It helped very much to know, as we are going through defoliation and thought we had a serious disease or insect, but now we know we just have to be patient and it will grow back.If we need trimming and they’re so tall and we’re in our seventies, I don’t know who could trim them and who has the knowledge to trim a Shady Lady properly! A larger relative with fuller foliage is the Shady Lady Black Olive, a superb shade tree for South Florida. Breakage within the canopy and the loss of geotrophism (knowing up from down) was also called out as a fault in this species following hurricane Andrew. Some trees also grow a sharp thorn-like spine on old growth behind the leaf node.It is not often adversely effected by pests or disease. Commonly known as the "Black Olive" this member of the Combretaceae family does not produce edible olives, only small, hard, seed capsules. Shady Lady is the new and improved cultivar and the one to buy.Sorry, no olives - in fact, Shady Lady isn't actually related to real olive-bearing trees.

And this tree's salt tolerance makes it an ideal shade tree for coastal properties.If your yard is too small for a Shady Lady tree, you might like the There is an older landscape tree usually called just "Black Olive Tree." One of things we like most about plants is the rich and interesting stories and histories about them. The tree canopy grows dense and tight, with most having an outward, spreading horizontal habit.Despite the common name, this tree (Bucida buceras) is completely unrelated to the edible olive (Olea europaea). The caterpillar of the Staining of surfaces underneath Black Olive Trees which was once also considered a major fault of the tree is actually just a natural, organic and temporary side effect of the ….err……waste products produced by the caterpillar (scientifically referred to as frass) and yes, it means what you think it means).As a whole the species is highly salt tolerant and puts down deep anchoring roots making it able to endure high winds with little damage. Florida Black Olive makes a wonderful and very large shade tree. As it would turn out the tree that David Sinclair would ultimately come to name the superior and improved cultivar Shady Lady, and it would eventually become the industry standard for the popular species. The fruit of Bucida buceras however has little pulp and is not edible.Small smooth oval leaves that emerge a light medium green and mature to a deep, slightly blue toned green grow along unusual zig-zagged formed stems. That which is a desirable feature in one application, or even within a certain season, or growth stage can be a fault in another. As the tree matures, you can remove lower branches up to about 3 feet off the ground.A non-messy tree, Shady Lady's leaves are tiny and won't cause leaf litter - and fallen flowers will blow away in the breeze.Water on a regular basis with enough time in between waterings to let the tree dry out a bit.Fertilize 3 times a year - spring, summer and autumn - with a good quality granular fertilizer.Roots are not a problem so the tree can go as close as 6 feet from a walk or drive - though you'll have to trim up lower branches as the tree matures to allow for foot or vehicle traffic.We've put together plant groupings to help you visualize how various plants look together.Learn how to get instant curb appeal with fast growing plants and landscaping techniques! The exquisite Shady Lady black olive tree, with its lush layers of tiny leaves on zigzagged stems, is one of the most beautiful South Florida trees. However, it was primarily harvested from the wild and not cultivated for that use. The tipping of that scale between good and bad is subjective and most often little more than the opinion of the observer, as well as the simple matter of  Before this tree gained commercial popularity for ornamental use, its primary use was as a lumber source. The odd angled growth that was once observed and written up by an expert as being specific to the Black Olive was later also seen in live oaks, pines and other species in central Florida following Hurricanes Charley, Jean, Frances and Wilma, which hit that area back to back in 2004.But its best and most appealing feature perhaps is not the aesthetic beauty of the large, dense, horizontal spread of the canopy but rather that promise of a cool, dark respite of relief from the tropical sun that beckons from underneath it.Once a species catches on in the landscape trade, growers begin, of course, to study and learn how to efficiently produce it in large numbers as quickly as possible, but secondly they begin to observe the growth habit and features closely in hopes of spotting cultivars with different, stronger or more desirable features than the original species in general.By the mid 70’s, although commercial demand for theThis was the best and most informative article that we read on our Shady Ladies.

We love all plants here, and have rarely met a plant that we could not find some likeable feature in. Bucida is a widely used tree in South Florida. Do you have any suggestions for Bonita Springs Florida?

It is claimed to be native to the upper Florida Keys, but that is disputed. If you have large, well-established trees, you may tolerate the cons because you are reticent to sacrifice the tree's shade for the time it takes a newer model to grow to adulthood.